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SLFP has collapsed into a state that they name Azath Salley as Colombo Mayoral candidate – JVP

December 23rd, 2017

SLFP has collapsed into a state that they name Azath Salley as Colombo Mayoral candidate – JVP ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය බංකොලොත් වෙලා

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Re-settlements in Wilpattu are illegal – Auditor General

December 23rd, 2017

Re-settlements in Wilpattu are illegal – Auditor General විල්පත්තු විලත්තුකුලම් රක්ෂිතය නීතිවිරෝධි ලෙස හෙළි කළ බව විශේෂ විගණන වාර්තාවෙන් හෙළිවෙයි

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Have the attacks on the tea industry and agriculture sectors a sinister political dimension?

December 23rd, 2017

Chandre Dharmawardana.

Please see:https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/12/20/the-khapra-beetle-and-using-that-russian-credit-line/

There are those who wish to kill the tea plantations arguing that it is an unprofitable, ecologically unsound, colonially imposed liability etc. While some aspects of those arguments are true, many observers have suggested a hidden agenda behind all this. The tea industry is being channeled to collapse by (i) banning the quite safe herbicide glyphosate (ii) Getting the Russians to stop buying Sri Lankan tea, (iii) Other actions that are taking place, as well as articles in the newspapers and the email circuit against tea, written by certain individuals who are clearly fishing in troubled waters. Even the unjustified ban on sheet asbestos is now seen in a sinister light. The most significant source of asbestos fiber that is a health risk in Sri lanka arises mainly from motor vehicle brakes and such other sources completely unrelated to asbestos sheeting. In any case, how many cases of lung cancer caused by asbestos have been reported in Sri Lanka during the last 50 years?

A breakdown in the tea industry will create chaos in the hill country, with its mixture of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala youth and various communal workers unions, as well as plantation politics. There are many groups including the Disaster-Capitalism sharks as well as local separatists who can profit from chaos in the hills.

If the tea industry is not profitable, its refurbishment or replacement, or even converting the land to forest is a very complex matter involving technical knowledge, and also the capacity to organize such a transition. When the coffee plantations had to be replaced by Tea in the 19th century, the exceptional administrative efficiency of the British Raj of the era as well as its capacity to coerce populations to obey its will existed. Later, when Tea was hit by “Blister Blight”, Ceylonese scientists and planters were able to fight it and save the tea industry, unhindered any self-styled Green activists and poorly informed “save-the-planet” from “Vasha-Visha -toxins” bandwagons that did not exist in that era.

Today, the Tea industry could collapse under the “Vasha-Visha-Naethi-Ratak” activism where herbicides considered to be exceptionally safe are banned, and where fertilizers are banned and replaced by products proven to be scams that are claimed to be “organic”. Then our political and administrative set up today cannot lead a transition of the tea country to a regulated, riots and problems free agricultural or ecological future. But that is probably what is being aimed at by those who have been attacking the tea industry in some sort of a fifth column action.

The attack on existing agriculture is not limited to Tea, but it applies equally well to paddy and many other sectors, which are all affected by the policies on herbicides, fertilizers, and the cry for organic food spearheaded by the more wealthy segments of the society.

It is indeed the case that some individuals who have regrouped behind this program are genuinely concerned but mis-informed individuals. The public readily believes that most of the chronic illnesses of the modern era are due to “chemicals” being spewed all over the environment. It is this public fear that is being used as a political weapons. There are also people who are committed to false ideologies. In the Soviet Union Lysenko was a party ideologue who declared that modern genetics and plant breeding theories were contrary to Marxism and launched an ideological agricultural program under Stalin, and caused colossal famines in Soviet Russia. In Sri Lanka too, the attacks on scientific agriculture as well as science itself involve ideological elements linked to uninformed eccentrics like Dr. Nalin de Silva, or to naive traditionalists who wish to revert to “what was done by our fore-fathers”. The completely slanderous, scientifically erroneus book “Waku-Gadu Satana” written by C. Jayasumana (a medical doctor and young politician) , and carrying a forward by Gunadasa Amarasekera, is very sobering in showing the extent of misinformation that exists in the country.

Chandre Dharmawardana.

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‘GRIP ON YOUR ‘SARONG’

December 23rd, 2017

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

The latest chorus song by Sunil Perera, Desmond de Silva, Anesley Dias, and Rajiv Sebastian, dedicated to the theme, ‘The Sarong,’ is doing the normal rounds on the Internet and via emails. The song itself is humorously entertaining. I have written earlier too, on this subject, but the latest hit song about the ‘Sarama’ inspired me to write about it again.

Many men and women wear the ‘Sarong’ in the Asian sub continent. When it comes to women, it covers their lower part of the body, a short sleeve-blouse covers the top. Elite Lankan women wrap psychedelic sarongs round their waist, as a chic design, with a trendy knot, at times tubular wrap-ups calling it the ‘lungi’. The normal village woman’s daily costume is called the ‘redda and hatte.’ The Southern women, in particular, wrap few metres of printed cloth round their waist, known as cheeta; their blouse is a long sleeved top, with ‘beeralu’ adornments known as the Kabakuruththuwa.

Sarama has been the most commonly used attire among men folk in Sri Lanka from time immemorial. It varies from the design, from handloom, silk to ‘Palayakart’, depending on the price structure. The ordinary man wears the latter for durability on a daily basis. The multi coloured, fashionable, and expensive designer type sarongs are usually worn by the middle to upper class social strata, with a matching kurtha by men, or a modish top by women. Yet, there is another group of men, who adorn western outfits during the day, and get into their sarong in the evening only for convenience.

Social stigma

For decades, the snobbish section of the society looked upon ‘saronged- jonnies’, as they were termed, and categorised them as less educated lower social classes, thus attaching a sort of social stigma to the sarong. Over the years, however, the attitudes of people have changed, once the political and social leaders started to adopt it as a formal garment, and interpreting it as a national pride, and calling the outfit as the ‘national dress’. Still there is a special breed of Sri Lankans, who appear to be allergic to wearing a sarama altogether! So, they even get into bed wearing a pair of shorts.

Once a reader wrote to the writer, as a feedback to his pervious penning on the subject, posing the following question: ‘Has anyone heard of Amude (loincloth or breechcloth), the national dress of the Sinhalese? It is the most comfortable dress, if you want to cover your genitals in public for modesty, in a humid and a warm climate. That was the men.  Women wore a Redikaalla (piece of cloth) for the same reason. One should read “Salalihini Sandesaya”, a prescribed school text, some time back, before the rise of the western suit and of course over the Amude”.

Combined outfit

Our forefathers always wore sarongs. The elite lot, however, used to wear the trouser underneath the cloth, and wrapped it over with a high-priced cloth, out of wool blended with cashmere. They were named as ‘redda-asse mahaththaya, and worked as Vidanes (chief operating officers), under the colonialists.

Another reader described Vidanes as follows: “There was a class of people who wore trousers, and over that wore a cloth to cover it, but showing the lower portion at the ankle with a jacket (coat) on the upper body. They also wore a hat and shoes.

They were called “Redda Asse Mahaththaya. There was another class of people, who wore the “Saruwalaya”. It was akin to a pair of shorts, but had a “frill” right round the waist coming out from a string tightened to prevent the “Saruwalaya” dropping. The women wore a cloth named “Kambaya” and the elite women wore “Pata Kambaya that was made up of more elegant quality stuff”.

Different schools of thought

When Sri Lankans migrate to foreign countries, particularly to the West, they seem to adopt two different schools of thought on the Sarama. Some begin to think the adaptation to the new environment is compulsory and it aids local harmony, while others become unhesitatingly adamant in thinking that one must never forget one’s own traditions and the culture. It invariably turns out to be a state of the mind!

In London, the writer has witnessed some Sri Lankan expatiates becoming extremely conservative about the English customs and traditions, and keep up with the Joneses by wearing a collar tie even at home, when they sit at the dining table with the family.Contrary such beliefs, there are those who couldn’t care less, and wear a sarong even travelling by public transport (the underground railway) to attend Sinhala New Year celebrations.

The difference

In western cold climes people generally wear thick dark clothes and cover their necks with collar ties, feet with socks and shoes, thermal vests and ‘long Johns’ underneath shirts and trousers, to protect them from extreme cold weather conditions. When summer comes and the sun starts to shine, the whole scene changes with the warm weather, and light and flimsy attire come to the forefront to dispel the gloomy look. Public parks get crowded with ‘half naked’ women, showing their flesh by sunbathing in the sun, while men go to work in short sleeve shirts and wearing a kind of sandals to suit the climate, instead of shoes.

Garments are basically meant to cover one’s bareness. OK, let styles and designs exist, but why on earth one’s dress should be treated as inferior, especially when one wears a Sarong? After all, whatever the dress one wears, it should be for one’s comfort and convenience, according to one’s own choice, and then, why should any one else be bothered about it? So, grip on your sarong !

tilakfernando@gmail.com

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SLPP woes mount, proposed Army HQ land deal investigation

December 23rd, 2017

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

December 23, 2017, 8:00 pm

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s woes with the nomination lists continued in the second round as well though at a lesser level than during the first round. The biggest blow to the fledgling political party during the second round was the rejection of the SLPP list for the Tirappane Pradesheeya Sabha in the Anuradhapura district which many in that party consider a sure win. In addition to Tirappane, the SLPP nomination lists for the Jaffna Municipal Council, the Valikamam North, Valikamam East, and Delft Pradeshiya Sabhas were rejected in the second round. In comparison to the lists rejected in the first round, the rejection of some lists in Jaffna where national political parties cannot hope to win, may seem to be a minor setback. However, at the last presidential election, Mahinda Rajapaksa did get a substantial number of votes in the Jaffna peninsula and there was the expectation that the Podujana Peramuna would have been able to get a certain number of representatives elected in the north.

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For example, Mahinda Rajapaksa got 5,959 votes in Kayts, 7,791 in Vaddukkoddai, 5,705 in Kankesanturai, 7,225 in Manipay, 6,211 in Kopay, 3,937 in Udupiddy, 4,213 in Point Pedero, 5,599 in Chavakachcheri, 5,405 in Nallur, 4,502 in Jaffna, 13,300 in Kilinochchi and 4,607 postal votes in the Jaffna District at the last presidential elections. Overall, Mahinda Rajapaksa got no less than 74,454 votes in the Jaffna District which works out to nearly 22% of the total votes cast. This was not a bad performance at all given the fact that the 2015 presidential election was the lowest point ever reached by the Rajapaksa government in the north after the war ended. Even if due allowance is made for the fact that this included the votes of the various allies of the time such as Douglas Devenanda’s EPDP, still there is the possibility that the Podujana Peramuna contesting on its own may have been able to get some representatives elected to the Jaffna peninsula local government authorities.

At the 2011 local government elections, there were many local government authorities where the UNP got only one representative elected and dozens more outside the north and east where the UNP had only two representatives. In fact at that 2011 election, the UNP had only two representatives in the Akuressa Pradeshiya Sabha in a situation where the UPFA had two representatives in the Velvettititurei Urban Council – Prabhakaran’s birthplace. Hence if the Podujana Peramuna had been able to win just one seat each in the various local authorities in the Jaffna peninsula, that would have been quite sufficient to maintain a presence and make a statement. This is why the rejection of the nominations list in the Jaffna MC and the Valikamam North, Valikamam East, and Delft Pradeshiya Sabhas are also a significant loss to the Podujana Peramuna.

Presidential Commission to probe Shangri La land deal?

The yahapalana government has been adept at shooting themselves in the foot and they took another major step in that direction by discussing in cabinet that a special presidential commission be appointed to investigate the alienation of the land on which the newly opened Shangri La hotel now stands. This land originally belonged to the Army Headquarters. The Shangri La hotel is the only worthwhile foreign investment that came into this country during the period of the yahapalana government. They are now trying to initiate an investigation into the alienation of land for this hotel project – the allegation being that the 10 acre land on which it stands was sold for USD 125 million around 2010. Owing to the relocation of Army headquarters which the sale of this land necessitated, the government further claims that Rs. 5 billion a year has to be spent on rent to house the installations of the Army that had to be shifted out and that this was an unnecessary burden on the Treasury. The President had also claimed that the shifting out of several units and offices out of the Army headquarters had resulted in a national security threat.

There is some speculation as to what would have caused this latest initiative against the Rajapaksas coming as it does after the opening of the Shangri La hotel in Colombo. Some think this may have been motivated by the alleged difference in the treatment meted out to President Sirisena and the leaders of this government on the one hand and the Rajapaksas on the other by the operators of the new hotel. It is said that at the opening ceremony, the President and the leaders of this government had less lavish treatment than the Rajapaksas when liquor flowed like water – or so we are told. Speculation is also rife that since all other means to corner Gota on the so called MiG deal and the Medamulana memorial having failed, the government has fixated on the alienation of land to the Shangri La project as a means of fixing him, and this time they have decided to do it through a presidential commission rather than using the courts.

There is also the view that this talk of a presidential commission into the Shangri La land is only to mollify the UNP because the report of the bond commission is to be released in the next few days before the end of the year and Sirisena was trying to soften the blow for the UNP by talking of a similar presidential commission to investigate the Shangri La land transaction. Whatever the true reason for this talk of investigating the Shangri La land deal, it could not come at a worse moment when all eyes are on the newest luxury hotel to open in Colombo. Every present and potential investor in this country will now be watching what happens very carefully. This is a country that shot itself in the foot very badly in this regard the moment they came into power by halting all Chinese funded projects including the Port City which was inaugurated by the President of China himself. The sight of an elected government in a country treating China, the main investor in the world, in that manner would have caused consternation among existing and potential investors in this country.

Unsurprisingly, after this government promising good governance came into power, the foreign direct investment coming into this country declined precipitously from USD 1,528 million in 2014 to USD 970 million in 2015 and still further to USD 801 in 2016 and this was expected to fall further in 2017. That was hardly surprising when investors in this country are treated like thieves that have come to burgle one’s house. Now just after a showpiece investment brought in by the previous government has just commenced operations in Colombo, the government is at it again. Just as they had to go on their bended knees to China after their earlier misadventure, the government is most probably going to end up with egg on their faces if they appoint a presidential commission to look into the Shangri La land transaction. Even if an investigation is carried out into a transaction under the radar to ascertain what happened, none should make a song and dance of making an investigation when a prominent foreign investor is involved. This government especially should be mindful of the spectacle it makes.

But a spectacle is what this government seems to need. They seem to be angling for something like the bond commission, with hearings and the press reporting the proceedings on a day to day basis. You will have Gota and the other Rajapaksas coming to give evidence as well the owners and executives of Shangri La Hotels. The message that will go out to all potential foreign investors will be – never invest in Sri Lanka unless you are willing to face years of litigation and investigations. After having driven off potential investors with such a show, the government may not have much to show for their pains. This was a transaction that took place with all the necessary cabinet approvals with the valuation of the land being done by the Government Valuer as has been publicly stated by the present State Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena. As for the shifting of the forces headquarters to Akuregoda in Battaramulla, this was a plan that had been in the works from the time of President J.R.Jayewardene. The plan then was to shift all administrative buildings to the Kotte area and the Akuregoda site had been earmarked for the Army headquarters more than three decades ago.

Implementation of JRJ’s plan

It had in fact the J.R.Jayewardene government that had begun making commercial use of the prime land on which the Army headquarters was located on Galle Face. The land on which the Taj Samudra hotel now stands also used to belong to the Army. It had been sold to the Hotel Taj Samudra in the early 1980s. Thereafter the war intervened and the plan to shift the Army headquarters to Akuregoda was on hold for more than three decades. With the end of the war, these decades old plans were revived by the Rajapaksa government. The money from the sale of ten acres of Army headquarters land to the Shangri La hotel was to be used to build not just a new headquarters for the Army but for the navy and airforce and the entire defence establishment. While the land for the defence force headquarters had been allocated by the J.R.Jayewardene government, the first building designs had been carried out by the Chandrika Kumaratunga government.

However no buildings were put up on the even under the CBK government site due to the lack of money and the escalation of the war. The defence force headquarters at Akuregoda is not really a Rajapaksa project but like all other projects begun and completed under the Rajapaksas such as the Hambantota port, the Mattala airport, the Norochcholai power plant, the Upper Kotmale project etc this too was a project that had been on the drawing boards for decades under various governments. The way the Rajapaksa government saw to it that this project got off the ground was not by taking any loans to build it, but by selling a part of Army HQ land to Shangri La Hotels and putting the money into a defence ministry bank account so that no money would be needed from the Treasury in the form of annual allocations to build the Akuregoda complex.

Had this plan been implemented, by now all the armed services would be housed at the Akuregoda complex and no rent would need to be paid to house the various Army units and offices that had been moved out of the old headquarters complex. However what happened was that as soon as this government came into power, they raised a mighty hue and cry saying that the proceeds of the sale of the Shangri La land had been deposited in a ‘private account’ by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and was being misused. It was not that this government did not know the difference between an account maintained by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in his own name and an account maintained by the Defence Secretary in his official capacity through the Defence Ministry – they just wanted to use any pretext available to hurl allegations at the previous government. Within days of the new government taking office, on January 18, 2015, the newly appointed Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake claimed at a press conference that a sum of Rs. 7,500 million had been ‘found’ in the bank account under the name of the former Defence Secretary and that the money has now been transferred to the Treasury.

This was money lying in an account in the Taprobane Branch of the Bank of Ceylon. Gota had to counter this allegation stating that this was an Operational Account held with the Bank of Ceylon Taprobane Branch dedicated for the use of financing the construction of Army Headquarters building at Pelawatta. He pointed out that the account was created with the approval of the Cabinet with the money realized from the sale of the Galle Face land where the Army Headquarters was previously located. He explained that after the relocation and construction work was started, withdrawals were to be made from it based on the progress of the construction work undertaken by various contractors and suppliers and that the account is operated by the Chief Accountant and other authorized officials of the Ministry of Defence under the overall supervision of the Secretary of Defence.

All cheques had been issued with two signatures upon the receipts of certified payment vouchers. The account had been originally opened with about Rs. 20 billion in 2011 and withdrawals have been made each year thereafter for the payment of certified claims from contractors. The names and signatures of authorized persons are available with the Bank and Chief Accountant of the ministry and the annual deposit balance is reported on the Government balance sheet. After the change of government, the new defence secretary became the automatic custodian of that account. This matter was promptly laid to rest after the Secretary of Defence newly appointed by the yahapalana government B.M.U.D. Basnayake, confirmed that the account held with the Bank of Ceylon’s Taprobane Branch, containing nearly Rs 8 billion, is not under the name of his predecessor and that it belongs to the Ministry of Defence.

For doing so, Basnayake was removed from his post and has not been given any noteworthy posting thereafter. As for the decision to sell off the Army headquarters land to a hotel project, Gota was later to explain to a Viyath Maga audience that he was faced with the dilemma of having to shift the headquarters of the war winning army which had occupied those premises for six decades and which had been the nerve centre of the war for 30 years. Yet he had gone ahead because this planned shift had been on the drawing boards for decades and there was also the need to promote foreign investment. Shangri La is one of the biggest foreign investments ever to come into Sri Lanka under any government. In addition to the two hotels already functioning in Hambantota and Colombo they have other developments in the pipeline in Colombo and the eastern province as well. In recognition of this fact the present government too has allocated an additional three and a half acres of land from the same location to the Shangri La project.

Security concerns

Even though leaders of this government went in their numbers to the opening ceremony of Shangri La Colombo and even allocated additional land for the project, according to Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, President Maithripala Sirisena had even spoken in cabinet about a threat to national security with various units of the army being located in 15 different places while the Akuregoda complex was being built. Addressing a press briefing at the SLFP headquarters last week Samarasinghe said that at the last Cabinet meeting, President Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Defence Minister, had warned that housing army personnel at separate locations was a threat to national security and had enquired as to why the army was temporarily relocated in such an ad hoc manner. Samarasinghe said that several Cabinet Ministers at this point had urged President Sirisena to appoint a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate the matter. The President had neither accepted nor rejected the proposal.

It will be interesting to examine whether there was any real security risk by temporarily housing various units and offices of the army in various locations. In the first place, that temporary relocation was carried out by the government that put an end to terrorism. If any government had a good understanding of the security environment in this country, it was the previous one. In any event, even when the war was on, the army always had detachments and camps in areas they wanted to dominate. Very often these detachments and camps were located deep in enemy territory. The duty of the army is to provide protection to others, and not necessarily to seek protection for itself. After the war ended and the terrorist military machine was completely wiped out, there was no real risk of an army installation being attacked anywhere in the country – even in the former war zone and to say that there was a security risk in army units and offices being located in various places in Colombo, is nonsense.

Another question to be considered is whether retaining the army headquarters at Galle Face would provide more security to the army headquarters than the Akuregoda complex. Commonsense would indicate that it does not. Sri Lanka is an island and any enemy approaching the country would do so either by air or by sea. In the case of an enemy that approaches by sea, the Sri Lanka army headquarters at Galle Face would be completely dependent on the navy for protection because it faces the sea across the Galle Face green. In 1987, during the tumultuous events surrounding the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, an Indian warship was anchored off the cost of Colombo to come to the aid of the government. This was largely due to fears of an army coup against the then government in protest against the accord with India. Had any operation been necessary, the Indian warship would have been able to pulverize the entire army headquarters without setting foot on shore. In that respect, one could argue that the Akuregoda complex being located as it is between the air fields of Katunayake and Ratmalana, is a much more secure location.

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President hints at ditching UNP-dominated govt.

December 23rd, 2017

Courtesy The Island

President Maithripala Sirisena, who is at loggerheads with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP), has strongly hinted at a possible split of their coalition mid-way of its five-year term.

The President told his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) loyalists that he has decided to carry out the “second stage” of his daring political bravery of defecting from the then strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government in November 2014.

A rank outsider, Sirisena quit his Health Ministry portfolio and challenged his former boss at the snap presidential election of January 2015. He won spectacularly with the support of a UNP-led rainbow coalition clamouring for good governance after a decade of autocratic rule.

On Friday evening, Sirisena said the way to save the country from the scourge of bribery and corruption was to strengthen his SLFP which he described as the only “clean political force in the country.”

“Without strengthening the SLFP, I don’t see any clean political force that could save the country at this time in its history.

“As I took a courageous and bold decision to leave the (then) government on November 21, 2014, I have today decided to take my next major step. It will be in the interest of the country and its people to ensure a clean political force,” he said.

He said he did not fear consequences of his impending action out of his love for the country and its people.

“Whatever happens to me, I will do it. Otherwise we cannot save this country. Someone has to do this. The person who is doing it will have the support of lakhs of people,” he added without specifying what his action will be.

His comments come ahead of the February 10 local council elections at which his SLFP will take on Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s UNP as well as the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) loyal to the Rajapaksas.

Last month, President Sirisena suggested that Wickremesinghe’s government could be more corrupt than the previous regime.

He said the Rajapaksa was responsible for several mistakes, but the UNP-dominated government was no better.

“The SLFP made some mistake, but if the UNP is also making the same mistakes, and even exceeding (the corruption) of the SLFP regime, the people will not approve it.

“If there is any allegation against me, I am willing to give up all my posts and join the battle against corruption,” he said amid applause at a public meeting in Nikaweratiya in November.

However, the UNP pointed out that Sirisena had since been in contact with Basil Rajapaksa, the then Economic Development minister under his president brother, and had been seeking rapprochement with SLFP dissidents in a bid to beat the UNP at the February local elections. Basil Rajapaksa had been accused of being a symbol of the Rajapaksa-ear corruption and is currently facing prosecution over his allegedly ill-gotten wealth. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The UNP is also blaming Sirisena for blocking the arrest of former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who is a person of interest in several high profile murder investigations and massive scale corruption.

However, President Sirisena has denied he was interfering with investigations.

He said his appointment of a commission to investigate controversial bond purchases under the current government was applauded by both Sri Lankans in the country and abroad.

After he was provided with a full report at the end of this year, he will appoint another commission to investigate state-owned SriLankan Airlines and Mihin air, he added. The current board of SriLankan Airlines, appointed by Wickremesinghe, has been accused of mismanagement and corruption and several ministers have already called for a clean-up of the airline’s top management.

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පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ අපේක්ෂකයන්ගෙන් රටට ප්‍රතිඥාවක්

December 23rd, 2017

ඩබ්ලිව්. කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු උපුටාගැණීම මව්බිම

මෙවර පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයට තරග වදින ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ සියලුම අපේක්ෂකයන් රට හමුවේ විශේෂ ප්‍රතිඥාවක් ලබාදීමේ උත්සවයක් හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද..රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් 2018 ජනවාරි 02 වැනිදා සුගතදාස ගෘහස්ථ ක්‍රීඩාංගණයේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත බව හිටපු ආර්ථික සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා “ඉරිදා මව්බිම”ට පැවැසීය.

රට වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටිමින් ගම් දියුණු කිරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිවලට අනුකූලව කටයුතු කරන බවට සියලුම අපේක්ෂකයන් රට හමුවේ මේ ප්‍රතිඥාව ලබාදෙන බවත් හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඇතුළු ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ පක්ෂ නායකයන්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණට සම්බන්ධ පක්ෂ නායකයන් ඇතුළු විශාල පිරිසක් මේ අවස්ථාවට සහභාගි වන බවද බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා කීවේය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක කටයුතු ජනවාරි 6 සහ 7 වැනිදා ආරම්භ කිරීමට නියමිත බවත් මංගල රැලිය පවත්වන දිනය ඉදිරියේදී දැනුම් දෙන බවත් බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සඳහන් කෙළේය.

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තනි අතට බලය ගන්න මෛත්‍රිට රනිල්ට දැඩි බලපෑම්

December 23rd, 2017

ඩබ්ලිව්. කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු උපුටාගැණීම මව්බිම

පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයට පසු තනි ආණ්ඩුවක් හදන ලෙසට ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාටත් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාටත් එම පක්ෂ දෙකේ අභ්‍යන්තරයෙන් බලපෑම් එල්ල වී තිබෙන බව දේශපාලන ආරංචි මාර්ගවලින් වාර්තා වේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ ජේ‍යෂ්ඨයන් පිරිසක් ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාට පවසා තිබෙන්නේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සමඟ ජාතික ආණ්ඩු ගිවිසුම අහෝසි වීමෙන් පසුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය ප්‍රමුඛ එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධාන තනි ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවිය යුතු බවයි. එහිදී ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ සහයෝගයද ලබාගෙන 2020 ප්‍රධාන මැතිවරණවලට ශක්තිමත්ව මුහුණ දීමට හැකි බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ අමාත්‍යවරයෙක් ඉරිදා “මව්බිම”ට පැවැසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ බැඳුම්කර නිකුතුව ගැන සොයා බැලූ ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් වාර්තාව ලබන 30 වැනිදා ජනාධිපතිවරයාට භාරදීමත් සමඟ එමඟින් උපරිම වාසියක් ලබාගෙන එම තනි ආණ්ඩුවට එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ පිරිසකගේද සහයෝගය ලබාගත හැකි බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ එම අමාත්‍යවරයා සඳහන් කළේය.

මේ අතර පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයෙන් පසුව ජාතික ආණ්ඩු ගිවිසුම දීර්ඝ නොකර එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය තනි ආණ්ඩුවක් සෑදීම සඳහා මේ වන විටත් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කර ඇති බව එම පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රබල අමාත්‍යවරයෙක් ඉරිදා “මව්බිම”ට කීවේය.

පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයෙන් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය ජයග්‍රහණය කළහොත් රටේ ජනමතය අනුව මේ තනි ආණ්ඩුව සෑදීම පහසු වනු ඇති බවත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මන්ත්‍රි ධුර 106ක් තිබෙන එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට තනි ආණ්ඩුවක් නිර්මාණය කිරීම සඳහා තව අවශ්‍යව ඇත්තේ මන්ත්‍රි ධුර 7ක් පමණක් බවත් එම සංඛ්‍යාවටත් වඩා වැඩි පිරිසක් ආණ්ඩුවක් නිර්මාණය කිරීම සඳහා විවිධ පක්ෂවලින් කැමැත්තෙන් සිටින බවත් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ එම ප්‍රබල අමාත්‍යවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කළේය. අලුතින් ගොඩනැඟෙමින් තිබෙන මේ දේශපාලන ප්‍රවණතාව හමුවේ ලබන වසරේ රටේ දේශපාලන බල තුලනයේ වෙනස්කම් රාශියක් සිදුවනු ඇතැයි දේශපාලන විශ්ලේෂකයෝ අනාවැකි පළ කරති.

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Abduction of 11 youth: Witness says CID changed statement

December 23rd, 2017

Yoshitha Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

When the case where former navy spokesman D.K.P. Dissanayake was an accused was taken up for hearing before the Fort Magistrate Court, a key witness the CID had changed several parts of his initial statement and requested that he be allowed to made a personal statement in Court.

Mr. Dissanayake and five others were arrested on charges of abduction and disappearance of 11 youth in 2008 and 2009. The CID informed Court that the 11 youth who were abducted by unidentified groups in Colombo and the surrounding areas, had been taken to underground detention cells at a navy camp in Trincomalee which was supervised by a Navy Lieutenant Commander.

Counsel Udaya Gammanpila appearing for the witness informed Court that the CID had changed the facts in his client’s first statement recorded in 2015.

Meanwhile, Gang-Robbery Unit OIC Nishantha Silva informed Court that the witness had provided key pieces of information to the investigation and said the initial statement had not been changed in any way.

The CID arrested Mr. Dissanayake while he was at the Sri Lanka Navy base in Welisara following an investigation into the incident earlier this year.

Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne re-remanded the suspects till January 2, 2018.

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Racism & Separatist mentality of Tamil leaders with evidence

December 23rd, 2017

Shenali D Waduge

Even to dance the tango the two have to dance to not only the same tune but to the same steps. What is clear from the very statements by Tamil leaders and their representative parties over the years is that their demands remain fixated while they expect the other party to be compromising and virtually giving in to their demands. What is equally shocking is that the so-called international community & the UN system well aware of these racist & separatist demands of the Tamil political players are very happy to play along as they see opportunities for their agendas in the demands made by these Tamils.

On 20th November 1947 the President of the ACTC sent a telegram through the Governor’s Office to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:

The Tamil people of Ceylon have rejected the Soulbury Constitution in as much as at the general elections not one Tamil candidate of the U. N. P. was elected to Parliament and all but one of the Tamil Representatives who voted for the acceptance of the White Paper of 1945 in the defunct State Council were (sic) defeated. The All Ceylon Tamil Congress demands a free constitution for Ceylon conferring sovereignty on its people with equal freedom for all communities and calls for a constituent assembly to frame a constitution acceptable to all sections of the people. An Unitary Government with present composition of legislature and structure of executive totally unacceptable to the Tamils. In the absence of a satisfactory alternative we demand the right of self-determination for the Tamil people.”

It was only in 1951 that, for the first time, Tamil politicians defined the Tamils as a distinct nation. The first annual convention of the Tamil Federal Party (ITAK) declared:

“the Tamil speaking people in Ceylon constitute a nation distinct from that of the Sinhalese by every fundamental test of nationhood”

The Federal Party summoned its national convention in the naval port of Trincomalee in the eastern province. That convention, held on 19 August 1956 immediately after the passing of the June 1956 Official Language Act, passed the following resolutions:

the replacement of the present pernicious constitution by a rational and democratic constitution based on the federal principle and the establishment of one or more Tamil linguistic state or states incorporating all geographically contiguous areas in which the Tamil speaking people are numerically in a majority as federating unit or units enjoying the widest autonomous and residuary powers consistent with the unity and external security of Ceylon;
The restoration of the Tamil language to its rightful place enjoying the absolute parity of status with Sinhalese as an official language of the country;
The repeal of the present citizenship laws and the enactment in their place of laws recognizing the right to full citizenship on the basis of a simple test of residence for all persons who have made this country their home;
The immediate cessation of colonization of the traditional Tamil speaking areas with Sinhalese people.

Professor C. Suntharalingam – The man who fathered the Tamil Eelam concept and introduced the word EELAM into the Ceylonese political vocabulary. He created the Eela Thamil Ottrumai Munnani (Unity Front of Eelam Tamils) in 1959.

“We have made up our minds, come what may, that we shall constitute a separate state of Eelam”

Statement by S. J. Chelvanayagam after winning the by-election for the Kankesanturai Parliamentary seat, held belatedly on 7 February 1975

“I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free.”

In 1975 its leader Chelvanayakam declared secession to be the goal of the Tamil people. In 1977, the Tamil United Front (TUF) was Reformed as the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), and in the subsequent general election asked the Tamil people for a mandate to secede as the separate State of Tamil Eelam. The TULF stated in its election manifesto

The Tamil nation must take the decision to establish its sovereignty in its homeland on the basis of its right to self determination. The only way to announce this decision to the Sinhalese government and to the world is to vote for the Tamil United Liberation Front.”

In 1972 combining the ACTC and ITAK (Federal Party) Tamil United Front was formed which later became TULF in 1976. Vaddukoddai Resolution emerged from the first National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front meeting at Pannakam (Vaddukoddai Constituency) on the 14th day of May, 1976 by Chairman S.J.V. Chelvanayakam. www.sangam.org

5 objectives were declared

State of Tamil Eelam to consist of North & Eastern provinces to all Tamil speaking people
Constitution of Tamil Eelam based on principles of decentralization. No foremost place to any religion or territorial community.
Tamil Eelamwill assure equal status to all
Tamil Eelam will be a secular statewith equal protection to all religions
Tamil will be language of the State but Sinhala speaking minority can educate and transact in Sinhala subject to reciprocity of Tamil speaking minority in Sinhala state. (didn’t they demand equal language rights – if so why make only Tamil language of the state?)

26 March 1977 Chelvanayagam said ,

My advice to the Sinhalese leaders is to allow us to go our way .. Let us avoid bitterness and agree to part peacefully. This will pave the way for greater cooperation between the two nations on a footing of equality. The Tamils are not with any other alternatives. Bitterness is growing in the midst of the younger generations. Without allowing it to grow any further, which may lead to inevitable confrontation leading to foreign intervention, therefore a method of peacefully working out this entanglement is necessary. We are confident that the truth will ultimately triumph and we will win in the war of endurance.”

Tamil United Liberation Front  General Election Manifesto, July 1977

www.sangam.org

“to establish an independent sovereign, secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam…“.
Even before the Christian era, the entire Island of Ceylon was ruled by Tamil Kings, Senan, Kuddikan and Elara (Ellalan)” (These are all Indian – Tamil Nadu kings and Elara was not a Tamil)
The Tamil nation must take the decision to establish its sovereignty in its homeland on the basis of its right to self determination. The only way to announce this decision to the Sinhalese government and to the world is to vote for the Tamil United Liberation Front”
either by peaceful means or by direct action or struggle.”

When the UNP government put forward its conventional policy statement in August 1977, Amirthalingam, the leader of the opposition, proposed an amendment to it:

It [the policy statement] studiedly refrains from referring to the mandate given by the people of Tamil Eelam to the TULF for the restoration and reconstitution of a free, sovereign, socialist, secular state of Tamil Eelam . . . Government policy has failed to take note of the fact that the Tamils are a separate nation by all internationally accepted standards . . . and are therefore entitled to exercise their inalienable right of self determination”

President Jayewardene in October 1982

“They can’t separate, and what we give them can’t be different from any other part of the country.”

Yogaratnam Yogi, on behalf of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam speaking at a public meeting to commemorate the 15th death anniversary of Thanthai Chelva on April 26 1992 at Nallur, Jaffna

“Thanthai Chelva was the elder statesman who opened the path for the present struggle of the Tamils. He had to carry the struggle forward under great difficulties. We of the LTTE accord Thanthai Chelva and his sincere followers a respected position in the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle.”

In 2001 when Tamil National Alliance was formed comprising the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) their immediate demands were: –

The immediate lifting of the economic embargo currently in force in parts of the northeast province
Thewithdrawal of the residential and travel restrictions foisted on the Tamil nationality
The immediate cessation of the war being currently waged in the northeast
Theimmediate commencement of the process of negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) with international third party involvement.

TNA 2001 election manifesto

www.tamilnet.com

Recognition of theTamils of Sri Lanka as a distinct nationality.
Recognition of an identifiedTamil homeland and guarantee of its territorial integrity.
Based on the above, recognition of the inalienable right of self-determination of the Tamil nation.
Recognition of the right to full citizenship and other fundamental democratic rights of all Tamils who look upon the island as their country.’
Sambathan leader of TNA & present Opposition Leader (2003)

“The ISGA proposal submitted by the LTTE to the UNF government bears historical importance in the political history of Tamils in the island. The ISGA provides a base to find a permanent political solution to the Tamil national question,”

TNA 2004 election manifesto key areas www.tamilnet.com / www.thesundayleader.lk

The high security zones and armed forces camps…. should be removed
The political prisoners ……should be released (LTTE cadres are not political prisoners)
…. removing the restrictions put in place by certain countries on the LTTE

2009 Tamil Diaspora global referendum conducted by TGTE.

“I aspire for the formation of the independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east territory of the island of Sri Lanka on the basis that the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka make a distinct nation, have a traditional homeland and have the right to self-determination.”

TNA 2010 election manifesto transcurrents.com

Tamil people a distinct nationality
Tamil speaking Northern & Eastern provinces are historical habitation of the Tamil people peoples.
Tamil people are entitled to right of self-determination
Power sharing arrangement must be established in a unit merged Northern and Eastern Provinces based on a federal structure
Devolution of power over land, law and order, socioeconomic development including health, education, resources and fiscal powers
Direct foreign investment in the North & East
Tertiary education
Demilitarization return to pre-war 1983
Resettlement of Tamil people in their original places, housing and livelihood to be restored.
Compensation paid to loss of lives, maimed as a result of military campaign
Releasing persons detained without charges
Tamils who fled country must be allowed to return
Creation of employment opportunities for youth with participation of International Community & Tamil Diaspora
No displaced persons
Special commission to uplift socially and economically disadvantaged sections of society
TNA will raise standard of living of fishing communities providing them access to modern technologies
Increasing salaries of government servants and private sector employees
Equal status to women,
TNA assures to secure employment opportunities to unemployed graduates

Sampanthan’s speech at the 14th Annual ITAK convention in 2012 Batticoloa covered the following points : www.tamilcanadian.com a must read to understand what the demands are

Our expectation for a solution to the ethnic problem of the sovereignty of the Tamil people is based on a political structure OUTSIDE that of a UNITARY GOVERNMENT, in a UNITED SRI LANKA in which Tamil people have all the powers of government needed to live with self-respect and self sufficiency’. (this is echoing the 1947 demands by ACTC to the British)

The struggle is the same, but the approaches we employ are different. Our aim is the same, but our strategies are different. The players are the same, but the alliances are different. That is the nature of the Tamil people. Although we still have the same aim, the methods we use are now different.”

TNA 2013 election manifesto (Northern Provincial Council election)

www.colombotelegraph.com

The Tamils are a distinct People and from time immemorial have inhabited this island together with the Sinhalese People and others
The contiguous preponderantly Tamil Speaking Northern and Eastern provinces is the historical habitation of the Tamil Speaking Peoples
The Tamil People are entitled to the right to self-determination
Power sharing arrangements must be established in a unit of a merged Northern and Eastern Provinces based on a Federal structure, in a manner also acceptable to the Tamil Speaking Muslim people
Devolution of power on the basis of shared sovereignty shall necessarily be over land, law and order, socio-economic development including health and education, resources and fiscal powers.

TNA 2015 Parliamentary Election Manifesto – issued by the TNA comprising of ITAK, TELO, EPRLF and PLOTE.

www.colombotelegraph.com

The Tamils are a distinct People with their own culture, civilization, language and heritage and from time immemorial have inhabited this island togetherwith the Sinhalese People and others (slight change to their earlier stand)
The contiguous preponderantly Tamil Speaking Northern and Eastern provinces is the historical habitation of the Tamil People and the Tamil Speaking Peoples
The Tamil People are entitled to the right to self-determination in keeping with United Nations International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which Sri Lanka has accepted and acceded to
Power sharing arrangements must continue to be established as it existed earlier in a unit of a merged Northern and Eastern Provinces based on a Federal structure. The Tamil speaking Muslim historical inhabitants shall be entitled to be beneficiaries of all power-sharing arrangements in the North-East. This will no way inflict any disability on any People.
Devolution of power on the basis of shared sovereignty shall be over land, law and order, enforcement of the law so as to ensure the safety and security of the Tamil People, socio-economic development including inter-alia health, education, higher and vocational education, agriculture, fisheries, industries, livestock development, cultural affairs, mustering of resources, both domestic and foreign and fiscal powers.
Direct foreign investment in the North-East should be facilitated resulting in new industries and employment opportunities being created for youth
Avenues for tertiary education should also be set-up so that those who cannot enter universities can pursue higher education in relevant fields

V Rudrakumaran, LTTE lawyer and present ‘President’ of TGTE

“…a social group characterized by distinct objective elements such as a common language and a common struggle, acquire subjective elements such as a sense of solidarity, of sameness or oneness and has a relationship to a defined territory,” such a group clearly constitutes a “people” and-is entitled to self-determination… the Tamils of Sri Lanka, who are united on the basis of such objective factors as a distinct language etc., and by such subjective factors as a passionate yearning for freedom, and who have a long-established relationship to the Northern and Eastern provinces constitute a people, and are therefore entitled to self-determination in the form of secession, in the face of denial of effective representation in Sri Lanka’s existing constitutional and political situation….

Feb. 10, 2015 Northern Provincial Council headed by C V Wigneswaran tabled a resolution alleging genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils, since 1948 (he cannot however explain how Tamil population is increasing after genocide)

Racism of Chief Minister Wigneswaran is exposed through these examples https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/04/04/racism-of-chief-minister-wigneswaran/

There are plenty more racist and hateful statements made by these so-called Tamil leaders most of these comments for want of space is not included. What is shocking is that no one seems to be bothered with their racism & separatist objectives.

Take all of the Tamil organizations/associations overseas and study their aims, objectives – every event they organize uses LTTE colours, LTTE flags, LTTE memorabilia, LTTE maps etc.

If the demands have not changed why should the other side only be the one to have to compromise, virtually give into demands that have no historical basis, factually incorrect, strenghtened by blood-money & illegal and illicit profits.

Shenali D Waduge

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Rathana thero! What you should know about chrysotile white asbestos

December 23rd, 2017

A Patriot

Rathana thero!! Please stop making profit motivated agitations against commercial products.

Read What you should know about chrysotile white asbestos.

There are two types of asbestos in the world: amphibole and chrysotile. There is proof that some amphibole types cause lung cancer. But chrysotile is not dangerous because we can get rid of it from the body if we take a breath of air contaminated with chrysotile,” When they make roofing tiles mixing chrysotile with cement, makes it much safer than any substitutes. Russian roofing material made out of chrysotile white asbestos are technically different from what is produced in the West.

Developing countries are the large market for chrysotile white asbestos. Substitutes for white asbestos, such as polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) fibre, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and cellulose, which are produced in the European Union, are much more expensive.

That’s why we see a lot of anti-chrysotile rhetoric is from the EU and USA and also from locally promoted anti-chrysotile rhetoric by Maharajah group which stands to benefit if chrysotile imports are banned. Meanwhile consumers, who have limited finances, will lose benefits,

Chrysotile helps make roofing tiles more durable as well as resistant to heat and humidity. The ore is also cheaper than other substitute materials.

Sergey Kashanskiy, a candidate of medical science and head of the Labour Hygiene Laboratory of the Yekaterinburg Medical Research Centre for Prophylaxis and Health Protection in Industrial Workers, said white asbestos had been proved to be the safest ore used in the industry without any effect that causes any disease in a given situation. There is no scientific proof that chrysotile is a cause of lung cancer, he said.

Russia, which has the world’s largest geological reserves of asbestos, mines about a million tons of asbestos a year and exports about 60 percent of it. Demand is still strong for asbestos in China and India, where it is used in insulation and building materials. The Russian Chrysotile Association, an asbestos industry trade group, reports that annual sales total about 18 billion rubles, or $540 million. And the business is growing, mostly because other countries are getting out of the business.

The trade association says that the type of asbestos mined in Russia, called chrysotile, is less harmful than other types. The United States, though, has tightly restricted its use. The country imports about 1,000 tons of asbestos, mainly from Brazil, for use in aerospace and automotive industries for items like clutch pads. They consider it dangerous but we consider it safe,” said the association’s spokesman, Vladimir A. Galitsyn. Russia has three research institutes dedicated to studying uses for asbestos.

Four countries including Russia have blocked a bid to add chrysotile asbestos to a list of dangerous substances subject to export restrictions, participants at a UN meeting in Geneva recently.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Zimbawe opposed listing the mineral also known as white asbestos, which health experts say causes cancer, on the Rotterdam Convention list, according to groups attending the Geneva meeting that wrapped up recetly.

India has long vehemently opposed adding chrysotile to the Rotterdam Convention list, but did not in the end join the four countries officially opposing its inclusion.

Ranil-Sirisena Government is brainwashed by their western handlers to such an extend that even it can ruin our tea industry completely.

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CHRISTIAN CRUCIFIX CULTURE and LACK OF RESPECT FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM. CAN GOD HELP SRI LANKAN CRICKET?-

December 23rd, 2017

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Lack of physical fitness amongst the Sri Lankan cricketers is a major drawback. In a Workshop held this week in Sydney for coaching under 15 cricketers several slides of Sri Lankan cricketers were shown ( with their eyes covered) to demonstrate the Sri Lankan international players were puffing and panting after few minutes of playing. It was revealed that the Sri Lankan National squad players ( country not directly identified) cannot even do 10 push-ups in a training session).

When other players are continuing to play under unfavourable weather conditions, our players appears to be exhausted, requiring drinks, muscle treatments etc. Some players come to bat, after facing few overs, request change of gloves from the dressing room, demonstrating lack of preparedness.

They are lacking self-confidence. At the Workshop in Sydney, it was also revealed (once again the name of the country not mentioned) that those who are playing at the National Level in Sri Lanka would not have had any chance of being selected even for a Divisional Cricket Tournament in Australia. In comparison, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have developed the techniques with well founded strategies, in line with professional sportsmen elsewhere.

To overcome the lack of self-confidence and stamina, they have started seeking redress from the Divine Intervention. The Buddhist players carry a bundle of Pirith Nule wrapped around their hands. Can a piece of thread help someone to bat, bowl or field, surpassing the skills of your competitor?

The Sri Lankan Christian players never hide their religious identity. The whole world knows the religion of Angelow Mathews, Tissara Perera, Kusal Mendis, Nuwan Pradeep, Niroshan Dickwella, Ajantha Mendis, Dammika Prasad etc.

How many SL players lose their wicket just after reaching 50? Those who score 50 will almost require a cool drink, as if he has climbed the Mt Everest. The players look to the heaven if they score a boundary, six, 50 and get out for the next delivery.

Foreigners ridicule and down grade Sri Lankan cricketers, calling that SL’s are trying to win matches through inspirational BLACK MAGIC, instead of Training, Development and Commitment to the game.

The Players of predominantly Christian countries, play their game, without disclosing their religious affiliations. Wearing Pirith Nule and placing Crucifix must be banned for the players in Sri Lanka.

Most players fail to respect the National Anthem at the beginning of the game. It is quite clear vast majority of key players and skippers are not familiar with the Namo Namo Matha. After all, our own Prime Minister Rt Hon Ranil Wickremasinghe insulted the National Anthem and the country in public, by chatting with a colleague while National Anthem was playing. Unfortunately if the Leader of our country, who was educated at the Royal College disrespect the his own country’s National Anthem, what happens at the ground level is a foregone conclusion.

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ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ කුරුමිණීයා

December 23rd, 2017

දේශාල් පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අපනයන ආදායම් 2014න් පසුව ඇද වැටෙමින් පවතී. 2014 දී ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 11.12ක් වූ අපනයන ආදායම 2016 වන විට ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 10.31 දක්වා 7.3% ක අගයකින් පහත වැටී ඇත . දළ වශයෙන්, අපි 2016 දී තේ වලින් ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 1.20 පමණ උපයාගෙන ඇත . එය මුලු අපනයන ආදායමින් 12% ක පමණ අගයක් ගනී. ඒ අතරින්, අපේ ඉහළම තේ ගැණුම්කරු වනුයේ ඉරානයයි; ඔවුන් 2016 දී ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 154.1 ක තේ මිලදී ගෙන ඇත . දෙවනි විශාලතම තේ ගැනුම්කරු වනුයේ රුසියාවයි; රුසියාව 2016 දී ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 143 ක තේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් මිලදී ගෙන ඇත. 2016 දී රුසියාවට තේ අපනයනය කිරීමෙන් ලද ආදායම සමස්ත අපනයන ආදායමින් දළ වශයෙන් 1.4% ක අගයක් ගනී. මෙය සමස්තයක් ලෙස විශාල අගයකි. සමස්තයක් ලෙස අපේ අපනයන බිඳ වැටෙන වෙලාවක , තවත් ආදායම අඩු කරගැනීමට අපට උවමනා නැත .

අපේ තේ රුසියාව ප්‍රතික්ශේප කරන්නේ කුරුමිණියකු නිසාවෙනි; මෙය මීට පෙර කිසිදාක අප මුහුණ නුදුන් තත්ත්වයකි. ඒ නිසා ඇත්ත කුරුමිණීයා ඇත්තේ කොහේදැයි අප හඳුනා ගත යුතුව ඇත . රුසියාව තමන්ට මිතුරු නොවන යුරෝපීය රටවල කෘෂි නිශ්පාදන බොහෝමයක් තහනම් කිරීමට මේ කුරුමිණියා ප්‍රතිපත්තිය පාවිච්චි කර ඇත . ලංකාව වැනි රටකට රුසියාවට කුරුමිණියා දැමීමට පෙළඹීමට හේතුව පැහැදිලි කර ගත යුතුය . ලංකාව ඇමරිකාවේ පදයට නටන්නට පටන් ගන්නේ 2015 දී ය ; මේ කාලය රුසියාව සහ ඇමෙරිකාව අතර ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධතා උපරිම වන කාලයකි. රුසියානු නිශ්පාදන මිලදී ගැනීම අවම කරන ලෙසට ඇමෙරිකාව සිය රූකඩ රාජ්‍ය වලට අණ දෙන්නේ ඒ කාලයේදී ය . ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 2016 දී රුසියාවෙන් ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 81 ක භාණ් ඩ හෝ සේවාවන් මිළදී ගෙන තිබේ; නමුත් ඉන් බොහොමයක් රටට ඇතුලු වීම නවතා දැමීමට කිසිදු ඉඩක් නැත . නැවැත්විය හැකි එකම දේ නම් ඇස්බස්ටෝස් පමණෙකි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව කළාක් මෙන් ම අනෙකුත් රූකඩ රාජ්‍ය ද ඇස්බැටෝස් සහ පිළිකාව යා කරමින් රුසියාවෙන් ඇස්බැටෝස් මිළදී ගැනීම නවත්වන්නට ඇත ; රුසියාව විසින් පැහැදිලිවම තමන් ට සතුරු විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය ඇති රාජ්‍ය හඳුනා ගන්නට මේ ක්‍රියා කලාපය භාවිතා කරන්නට ඇත .

ඇත්තෙන්ම ලංකාව රුසියාවෙන් 2016 දී මිලදී ගෙන ඇත්තේ ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් 50,000 ක් පමණ වන ඇස්බැස්ටෝස් පමණි; මෙය නැවැත්වීම රුසියානු ආර්ථිකයට දැනෙන්නේවත් නැත ; ඇස්බැස්ටෝස් යනු හුදෙක් රුසියාවෙන් ලංකාව ආනයනය කළ දේ වලින් 0.06% අගයක් පමණි. මේ මෝඩ ප්‍රතිපත්ති තීරණ ඇමෙරිකාවේ පදයට ගන්නා අපේ ආණ්ඩුවට අමතක වූ දෙයක් ඇත ; රුසියාව සමග අපේ වෙළඳ ශේෂය ලංකාවට අතිශ්‍යයින් ම වාසි එකක් බවයි. රුසියවට අපේ අපනයන අගය ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 282ක් වන විට රුසියාව අපට විකුණා ඇත්තේ ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 81ක් භණ් ඩ සහ සේවා පමණි. නමුත් අපේ වැරදි තීරණ නිසා අපි අද ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 143ක තේ වෙළඳපොළ අහිමි කරගෙන ඇත .

රුසියාව මේ ගත් තීරණය අපේ රටේ සමස්ත තේ කර්මාන්තයටම බළපායි. තේ කර්මාන්තයෙන් යැපෙන ලක්‍ෂ ගණනකට ජීවිකාව අහිමි විය හැකිය . මේ කුරුමිණියා හරියට ම ඉන්න තැන සොයා ගත යුත්තේ මේ තත්ත්වය යටතේය . කුරුමිණියා සිටින්නේ යහපාලන අදූරද්‍ර්ශී විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තියේ ය ; අන්න ඒ කුරුමිණීයා ඉවත් කරන තුරු මෙවන් දේවල් අපට තව තවත් අසන්නට සහ දකින්නට සිදු වනු ඇත .

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Why should the lives of millions of innocent animals be destroyed at time of Christmas purely to celebrate the birth anniversary of one man?

December 23rd, 2017

Senaka Weeraratna

Life is the most precious possession of all living beings. No religion can deny this simple fact. Reverence for life is the epitome of ethics. To confine the reverence for life to only one species and discard the claims to live unharassed of the other eight million species that share the planet with humans is ethically and morally indefensible.

Monotheistic religions ignore the ethical dimensions of this reality. But adherents of other religions such as Buddhists and Jains and free thinkers in the West are not prepared to do so.

This issue always comes up at time of Christmas. Because that is the time that the greatest amount of harm is caused to animals. However much one tries to deny or cover up with seemingly innocuous sounding language there is an underlying human complicity in this animal holocaust and savagery.

Christmas feasts are deeply associated with the consumption of the flesh of victims of violence. Meat is obtained by snuffing out the life of another living being that wants to continue to live. It is hypocritical to talk of love and peace to all at Christmas while gleefully tucking into the remains of a dead animal on your plate. This is what is called double speak. It is basically language used to deceive usually through concealment or misrepresentation of truth. All the hosannas sung to the good Lord and his acolytes at Christmas becomes nothing but hypocritical if one overlooks the enormous amounts of blood of innocent animals that is being shed on the eve of Christmas to bring the meat to your plate. To eat meat without bothering to consider its true source is not right mindfulness. One must cultivate right mindfulness at all times particularly at times of religious observances. To disregard this requirement devalues the sanctity of the religious occasion. Christmas unfortunately has become a showboat festival sans true compassion for all living beings.

It is a ‘day of infamy’ from the point of view of dying animals. It is anything but a season of joy for them.

The screams of animals being slaughtered under most primitive unregulated conditions and in the backyards of homes during the Christmas season go unheard, unnoticed, and disregarded at times of prayer in Christian Churches, and more alarmingly in the corridors of power of this pre-dominantly Buddhist country. The rulers of this country in the pre-colonial era were animal friendly and upheld a culture of tolerance towards all living beings.

To talk of the high value of environmental conservation while ignoring the urgent need to enact the Animal Welfare Bill, is another instance of double speak that the Catholic Church is also guilty of. The Catholic Church and all other Christian Churches are maintaining a deafening silence on the necessity of bringing the Animal Welfare Bill onto the Statute Book. Animals have no votes. Sri Lanka’s self serving politicians can afford to ignore them. Their moral authority and credibility is nil. But religious institutions are a different kettle of fish. They are supposed to be the keepers of the moral conscience of a society. In this era of increasing awareness of the rights of others, how can one ignore the plight of other living beings?

A slaughter free religious festival would be a season of joy for all at least from the point of view of preservation of life. Humans and non – human animals alike. Vesak provides the best example where reverence and compassion for all forms of life is stressed and consequently on Vesak day an age-old custom is legally enforced – closure of slaughter houses and ban on sale of meat. A majority of the people abstain from flesh food consumption as part of the Buddhist religious tradition and practice on that occasion.

We in Sri Lanka can set an example to the rest of the world by doing likewise on Christmas day. The biggest beneficiaries would be the innocent animals. It is time that we all give consideration to their paramount interest in living until their natural life span ends just as much we humans do to each other.

Sri Lankans who celebrate Christmas should strongly consider commencing a new tradition of kindness and goodwill to all living beings by leaving meat off their plate on Christmas day. Instead of blindly aping foreign traditions mired in killing and bloodshed during Christmas, why not follow a more distinctive Buddhist (Vesak) tradition in Sri Lanka of total non-violence when celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of the founder of a religion.

It is never too late to start such a fresh endeavor this season. It will save lives. What can be more holy and noble than that?

Extend the spirit of goodwill to animals this Christmas by avoiding meat altogether on Christmas Day. That will be an unique and truly noble gesture.

All lovers of peace and non – violence (ahimsa) must campaign to make religious festivals in Sri Lanka slaughter free. That will bring a level of international recognition to Sri Lanka that no amount of empty rhetoric on Human Rights can bring.

Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.”

― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality

Senaka Weeraratna

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මධුෂා රාමසිංහගෙන් ලිංගික අල්ලස් ඉල්ලුවේ යයි මහින්දගේ පුද්ගලික ලේකම්වරයාගේ චරිත ඝාතනය කිරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණය සාක්ෂි සහිතව මෙන්න…

December 22nd, 2017

lanka C news

— මෙම ලිපිය Mahinda.Info / thetruth.lk අඩවිවලින් උපුටා ගන්නා ලද අතර අන්තර්ගතයේ සියළු වගකීම්ව ඔවුන් විසින් දරනු ලබයි —

දිනෙන් දින ජනප්‍රිය වෙන ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ මැතිවරණ යාන්ත්‍රණය විනාශ කිරීම සඳහා වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව විවිධ උපායන් ගනු ලැබුණි. දුර්වල මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ව මුදලට බිලි බා ගැනීම, නාමයෝජනා අවලංගු කිරීම, සැක පිට අත් අඩංගුවට ගැනීම, බොරු නඩු දැමීම, ව්‍යාජ චෝදනා ගොබෙල්ස්කරණය කිරීම, තර්ජනය කිරීම සහ බිය වැද්දවීම ඉන් කිහිපයකි. ආණ්ඩුවේ අලුත්ම උපාය වී තිබෙන්නේ චරිත ඝාතනය කිරීම් ය. කුප්‍රකට ටෙලිනාට්‍ය නිලියකට නාමයෝජනා නොලැබුණා කියමින් මෙසේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ පුද්ගලික ලේකම්වරයෙකුගේ චරිත ඝාතනයක් මේ දිනවල සිදුකරයි.

[1]. නාමයෝජනා දීමේ ක්‍රමවේදය පළමුව විමසා බලමු. ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණ යනු එක් පක්ෂයක් නොව පක්ෂ ගණනාවකින් සැදුම් ලත් සංධානයකි. කේවල ක්‍රමය අනුව නාමයෝජනා ලබා දෙද්දී කිසියම් ප්‍රදේශයකට නාමයෝජනා දෙන්නේ එක් අයෙකුට බැවින් පක්ෂ ගණනාවකින් ඇති අධික ඉල්ලුමත් සමග අපේක්ෂකයන් අතර දැඩි තරගයක් ඇති වෙයි. එනිසා කෙනෙකුට පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේ අපේක්ෂක කම දීමේදී හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා ප්‍රමුඛ ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මණ්ඩලය විසින් අනුමත කරන ලදුව නිශ්චිත ක්‍රමවේදයක් භාවිතා කරන ලදී.

එහිදී සලකා බලන කරුණු 2 වූයේ,
(i). ප්‍රාදේශීය දේශපාලනයට කොපමණ වැඩ කර තිබේද සහ එමගින් කොමපණ මහජන ප්‍රසාදයට ලක්ව තිබේද යන්න.
(ii). හිටපු ප්‍රාදේශීය මන්ත්‍රී කෙනෙක් වීම – මෙමගින් ජයග්‍රහණය කළ හැකි බව ඔප්පු කර තිබේ.
(optional) උපාධි මට්ටමට හෝ ඉන් ඉහළට උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා තිබීම. – දේශපාලනයට අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ බුද්ධිමතුන් ය. උපාධිය යනු බුද්ධිය මැණීමේ එකම සාධකය නොවුණත් එය හැරුණ විට වෙනත් මිණුම් පහසු නැත (උදා: අපේක්ෂකයන් 60000 කට එකවර බුද්ධි පරීක්ෂණ ප්‍රශ්න පත්‍රයක් දීම ප්‍රායෝගික නොවේ)

මධූෂා රාමසිංහට නාමයෝජනා දෙනවානම් ඇය වාසය කරන ප්‍රදේශය අනුව ඇයට ලැබෙන ප්‍රදේශ වන්නේ එක්කෝ දෙහිවල, ගල්කිස්ස, බොරලැස්ගමුව යන ප්‍රදේශ වලින් එකකි. නමුත් මධූෂාට වඩා ප්‍රදේශයට දසක ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ සේවය කර ජනතා ප්‍රසාදය දිනා ගත් දේශපාලඥයින් එමට එම ප්‍රදේශ වල සිටියි. ඇය හිටපු ප්‍රාදේශීය මන්ත්‍රීවරියක් ද නොවේ. එසේම ඇය උපාධි ලබාත් නැත.

ඒ අනුව ඇයව මූලික සුදුසුකම් වලින්ම ඉවත් වෙයි. නාමයෝජනා නොලැබුණ අය කුමක් කීවද කිසිදු හේතුවක් මත ඉහත ක්‍රමවේදයට පිටින් මුදල් බලයට හෝ වෙනත් හේතු මත ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ නාමයෝජනා ලබා දුන්නේ නැත. එසේ වූවානම් පක්ෂ 20 ක් පමණ සමගිව තබා ගැනීමට නොහැකි වනු ඇත. ඉහත කාරණාවට අමතරව ඇයට අපේක්ෂකත්වය නොදීමට තවත් බරපතල හේතු ගණනාවක් පවතී.

[2]. මධූෂා රාමසිංහ ගැන මුලින්ම බොහෝ දෙනා දැනගන්නේ ඇය පසුගිය ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී අලුත් පරපුර” නැමති කුප්‍රකට කල්ලිය සමග එක් වී එජනිස ආණ්ඩුවට මඩ ගැසීමේ කොන්ත්‍රාත්තුව බාර ගෙන තිබීමෙනි. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඔන්න මෙන්න තියා ඇය එදා පහත වීඩියෝවෙන් පවසන්නේ අලුත් පරපුරට පොදු අපේක්‍ෂක පිලේ අය විසින් ගස්සවා ගත්තා කීම බොරුවක් බවයි.

නමුත් එසේ පහර දුන් බව කියන කමල් ඉන්දික ට ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් අනතුරුව ශ්‍රීලනිප හිරියාල ආසනයේ ප්‍රධාන සංවිධායක කම ලබා දුනි. ඒ අනුව අලුත් පරපුර විසින් පොදු අපේක්‍ෂක පිලේ අය ලවා ගස්සවා ගත්තා කීම සනාථ විය. ඒ කතාව ප්‍රතිෂේප කිරීම මගින් එජනිස ආණ්ඩුවට මඩ ගැසීමේ එජාප කොන්ත්‍රාත්තුවේ මධූෂා රාමසිංහ ත් හිටි බව පැහැදිළි වෙයි. කුමන්ත්‍රණයේ පළමු අදියර එය විය. මධූෂා රාමසිංහ යනු දිය යටින් ගින්දර ගෙනියන තැනැත්තියක් බවට ඔබට දැන් පැහැදිළි විය යුතුය. ඇයගේ එම ඉතිහාසය දන්නා ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ කිසිවෙක් ඇයට නාමයෝජනා දෙන්නේ නැත.

ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණ වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටිනවා කියන ආණ්ඩුවට එරෙහිව කටයුතු කරන බව කියන මධුෂා රාමසිංහ පසුගිය මහ මැතිවරණයේදී ඉදිරිපත් වීමට සිටියේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයෙන් බවටද වාර්තා පල විය.

අද ඇය කියන දේ, එදා ඇය කළ දේව අතර ඇති අහසට පොළොව පරතරය අනුව ඇයගේ ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් නැති කම මනාව පැහැදිළි වෙයි. ආත්මය පාවා දෙන අයෙකුට තම චරිතය පාවා දෙමින් බොරු චෝදනා නැගීම ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොවේ. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ නායකයන් රටට ආදරය නොකළද තම පක්ෂයට ආදරය කරයි. එනිසා එජාපයේ අති බහුතරයක් පවසා ඇත්තේ මධූෂා රාමසිංහටනම් තම පක්ෂය පැත්ත පළාතේ එන්න දෙන්න එපා යනුවෙනි.

[4]. මධූෂා රාමසිංහ විසින්ම තමන් දුමින්ද දිසානායකගේ පෙම්වතිය බව පිළිගෙන තිබේ. පහත දැක්වෙන්නේ ඇය සිය ෆේස්බුක් ගිණුමේ පළ කළ සටහන යි.

සබීතාගේ ගොඩනැගිල්ල සම්බන්ධ ප්‍රශ්නයේදී ඇය දුමින්ද දිසානායකව බේරා ගැනීමට පෙනී සිටී. රාජපක්ෂවරුන්ට නොයෙක් මඩ අපහාස කරන දුමින්ද දිසානායකට වැඩ කරන කෙනෙක්ට ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජණ පෙරමුණෙන් නාම යෝජනා දෙන්න තරම් පිස්සුවක් නැත.

එතැන් පටන් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයට එරෙහි සියලුම මඩ අවලාද වලට මධූෂා රාමසිංහව යොදා ගන්නේ දුමින්ද දිසානායක විසින් බවට පැහැදිළි වෙයි.

[5]. මහනුවර සිට පැවැති පාද යාත්‍රාවේදී මධූෂා රාමසිංහ විසින් නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරයා අසළට ඇවිත් ඡායාරූප ගැනීමට උත්සාහ දරන ලදී. ඇයට අවශ්‍ය වූයේ නාමල්ගේ පෙම්වතිය ලෙස ප්‍රචාරය ලබාගෙන පසුව ආණ්ඩුවේ මාධය මගින් මඩ ගැසීමට යි. ඇය එද්දීම ඇයව ඉවත් කිරීමට නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරයාගේ ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරියා කටයුතු කළ නිසාවෙන් ඇයගේ ප්‍රයත්නය වැළකුණි.

[6]. ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ තරුණ ක්‍රියාකාරී හමුවක් මීට මාස ගණනාවකට පෙරදී පැවැතුණි. මධූෂා රාමසිංහ විසින් අනාරාධිතවම පැමිණ එහි වේදිකාවට ගොඩ වී අසුන් ගත්තා ය. ඇය පැවසුවේ දිලුම් අමුණුගම මන්ත්‍රීවරයා විසින් ඇයට ආරාධනා කළ බව වුවත් ඔහු එය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළේ ය. අනික් අතට තරුණ ක්‍රියාකාරී හමුවට ආරාධනා කළේ නෙලුම් මාවතේ පැවැති තරුණ කටයුතු මෙහෙයුම් කාර්යාලයෙන් පමණි. එසේ අනාරාධිතව වේදිකාවට ගොඩ වුණ ඇයව සංවිධායකයින් විසින් ඉවත් කරද්දී ඇයගේම සහචරයෙක් ලවා ඡායාරූප ලබා ගෙන ෆේස්බුක් එකේ දමා තිබුණි. එමගින් ඇයට අවශ්‍ය වූයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජණ පෙරමුණේ තරුණ ක්‍රියාකාරීන්ව බිඳවීමයි. මෛත්‍රීපාලට කඩේ ගිය මැයට වේදිකාව දුන්නේ ඇයි කියමින් මහින්ද පාක්ෂිකයන් ලෙස පෙනී සිටි මෛත්‍රීපාලට වැඩ කරන අය ව්‍යාජ ප්‍රොෆයිල් මගින් ප්‍රචාරය කර තිබුණි.

[7]. ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ නාම යෝජනා දෙන්නේ ලිංගික අල්ලස් දෙන අයට යනුවෙන් ඇය පවසන පදනම් විරහිත චෝදනාවත් ඉහත කුමන්ත්‍රණ වලම දිගුවකි. නමුත් ඇයට එම චෝදනාව සනාථ කිරීමට කිසිදු සාක්ෂියක් නොමැති බව ඇයම ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ජනමාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ පවසයි.

මේ ආකාරයෙන් ටෙලිනාටය නිලියන් ලවා කිසිදු සාක්ෂියක් නොමැතිව චරිත ඝාතනය කිරීමට හැකිනම් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ පුද්ගලයන්ගේ ජීවිතය අතිශය භයානක තැනකට ලක් වෙනු ඇත. සාක්ෂි නෑ කීවද ඉදිරියේදී ඇයගේ පෙම්වතාගේ මාධ්‍ය කණ්ඩායමක සහයෝගය සහිතව ව්‍යාජ දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් නිර්මාණය කර මඩ ගැසීමට කටයුතු යොදන බව අපට වාර්තා වී තිබේ. මේ හේතුව මත ඇයගේ සාහසික චෝදනාවට එරෙහිව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණෙන් නීතිමය ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගනු ඇත.

එසේම ඇය පැවසූයේ මෙවර මැතිවරනයේදී සෑම පක්ෂයකින්ම ලිංගික අල්ලස් ලබාගෙන ඇති බවකි.

එමගින් මධූෂා රාමසිංහ අපහාස කරන්නේ මෙවර පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේදී සෑම පක්ෂයකින්ම ඉදිරිපත් වෙන 25% කට අධික සියලුම කාන්තාවන්ටයි. තමන්ගේ නුසුදුසුකම් සහ දේශපාලන ක‍ටුසුභාවය නිසා නාමයෝජනා නොලැබීමේ ලැජ්ජාව වසා ගැනීමට නාමයෝජනා ලද අනෙකුත් සියලුම පක්ෂ වල කාන්තාවන්ගේ චරිතය නරකයැයි කීම ගැන ඇය ලැජ්ජා විය යුතුය. දේශපාලන බේධයකින් තොරව ඒ සියල්ලන්ගේම පිළිකුලට ඇයව භාජනය වී තිබේ.

– Mahinda.Info / thetruth.lk

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ශ්‍රීලනිප සමග ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණ එක්ව තරග කිරීම…! [Mahinda.Info EXCLUSIVE]

December 22nd, 2017

Mahinda.info

ඉදිරි පළාත් පාලන මතිවරණයෙන් ජය ගැනීමටනම් මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන නායකත්වය දරන ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය සමග එකතු වී ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණ තරග කළ යුතු බවට සුළු පිරිසක් පවසයි. එහෙත් අති බහුතරයගේ මතය වන්නේ ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණ වෙන්ව තරග කළ යුතු බවය. සුළුතර මතය වූ පමණින් එය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප නොකර ඔවුන්ගේ තර්කය mahinda.info වෙතින් විශ්ලේෂණාත්මකව විමසා බලමු.

ශ්‍රීලනිප සමග ඒකාබද්ධ පොදුජන පෙරමුණ එකතු විය යුතුයැයි කියන අයට ඒ සඳහා වෙන වෙනම ඤායපත්‍රයන් තිබිය හැකිය. එහෙත් ඔවුන් මතු කරන එකම තර්කය වන්නේ පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය ජය ගැනීමටනම් එකතු විය යුතු බවයි. ශ්‍රීලනිපය සමග එකතු වීමෙන් ඇති වාසි ඔවුන් මෙසේ පෙළ ගස්වයි.

1. මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සහ ඔහුට සහය දක්වන පිරිසට ඉතා සුළු ජන පදනමක් ඇති අතර ඔවුන්ද එකතු කර ගැනීම ජයග්‍රහණයට හේතුවකි.

2. මෛත්‍රීපාලගේ ශ්‍රීලනිප ය එකතු කර නොගතහොත් ඔවුන් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සමග එකතු වෙනු ඇත.

3. විධායක බලය ඇත්තේ විධායක ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනට වන අතර එය මැතිවරණය ජයග්‍රහණයට අවශ්‍ය වෙයි.

දැන් එම තර්ක 3 හි ඇත්ත නැත්ත බලමු.

1. මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන හැරුණ විට අන් කිසිවෙකුට ඡන්දය නොදෙමි යන මතයේ සිටින ඉතා සුළු පිරිසක් සිටිය හැකිය. නමුත් මෛත්‍රීපාල සමග එකතු වුවහොත් නැවත කාටවත් ඡන්දය නොදෙමි කියන මහින්ද පාක්ෂිකයන් ප්‍රමාණය ඊට වඩා අතිශයින්ම වැඩි ය. මේ දේ ඔබට විශ්වාස නැතිනම් ඔබ එදිනෙදා දන්නා මහින්ද පාක්ෂිකයන්ගෙන් ඒ බව විමසා බලන්න. එතකොට මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන සමග එකතු වීම යනු ලැබෙන ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණය අඩු කර ගැනීමකි.

2. මෛත්‍රීපාලගේ ශ්‍රීලනිප ය එකතු කර නොගතහොත් ඔවුන් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සමග එකතු වෙනු ඇත යන තර්ජනය අනුව පෙනී යන්නේ ඔවුන්ට ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් නොමැති බවයි. ඔවුන් හරියට කුලී හමුදාවක් වැනි ය. උඹලට අපිව ඕනැ නැතිනම් අපි උඹලගේ විරුද්ධවාදීන්ගේ පැත්ත ගන්නවා කියන උදවියව විශ්වාස කිරීමට නොහැකි ය. වරාය ගුවනොත්‍ටුපොළ තරංගසංඛ්‍යාත ඇතුළු ජාතික සම්පත් විකුණන, කෝටි ප්‍රකෝටි ගණන් බැඳුම්කර වංචා කළ, සංවර්ධනය සහමුලින්ම නවතා දැමූ, රණවිරුවන්ව සිරගත කරන, කොටින්ව නිදහස් කරන, උහුලන්නට බැරි ජීවන වියදමක් ඇති කළ උදවිය සමග එක් වෙන බව කියන අයව විශ්වාස කිරීම තරම් මෝඩ කමක් තවත් නැත. ඔවුන් යම් හෙයකින් ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණෙන් ජයග්‍රහණය කළද එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සමග එකතු වෙනු ඇත.

3. විධායක බලය ඇත්තේ විධායක ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනට වන අතර එය මැතිවරණය ජයග්‍රහණයට අවශ්‍ය වෙයි කියන කථාව අනුව බැලුවහොත් කිසිදා විපක්ෂයකට බලයට ඒමට නොහැකි වේවි. අනික අතට මෛත්‍රීපාලගේ විධායක බලය යොදා ගනිමින් ඡන්ද දිනන්න ශ්‍රීලනිපය හදනවානම් එය ඡන්ද වංචාවකි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට සහය දක්වන අප කිසි සේත්ම ඡන්ද වංචා වලට එකඟ නොවෙමු.

මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන නායකත්වය දරන ශ්‍රීලනිප සමග ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණ එකතු වෙන්න කියන අය නොකියන තවත් කරුණු ලයිස්තුවක් ද mahinda.info වෙතින් ඔබට සැකවින් මෙසේ දක්වන්නෙමු. ඒවා පහතින්.

[1]. 2015 ජනවාරි 8 වැනිදා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපති තුමා නායකත්වය දැරූ රජය, එජාපය විසින් පෙරලූයේ මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මූලික කරගනිමිනි. අපට අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ නැවතත් මහා සංවර්ධනයක් සිදුවෙන – රටම එකම වැඩ බිමක් බවට පත් වෙන – අධිවේගී මාර්ග ගුවන් පාලම් ඉදි වෙන – නීතිය නමා නිදහස් කළ කොටින්ව බො‍ටුවෙන් අල්වා සිරගත කර, හිරේ සිටින රණවිරුවන්ව නිදහස් කරන – බැඳුම්කර හොරුන් හොරා කෑ මුදල් නැවතත් ජනසතු කරන – ජීවන වියදම අඩු වෙන – මහින්ද යුගයකට යාමටනම් අප විසින් මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනව තීරණාත්මකව පරාජය කළ යුතුය. ඔහු කුමන වෙස් මුහුණු බැන්දත් ඔහුව පරාජය කිරීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කරුණකි. එය යමපාලන ගෙදර යැවීමේ පළමු වෙඩි මුරයයි. එසේම මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන නායකත්වය දරණ පක්ෂයක පරාජය මගින් ජාත්‍යන්තරයත් රටේ සැබෑ ජනමතය කුමක් දැයි හඳුනා ගනු ඇත. ජාත්‍යන්තරය මත යැපෙන එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට ලැබන ඩොලර් කුට්ටි වලට තිත තැබෙනු ඇත.

[2]. මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනගේ සහයෝගයක් නොමැතිව ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය ජයග්‍රහණය කළ විට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන යටතේ සිටින මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් රොත්තක් ඉන් ගැලවී ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය සමග එකතු වෙනු ඇත. මෛත්‍රීපාලගේ සහයෝගයෙන් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය ජයග්‍රහණය කළ විට මෙය සිදු නොවේ.

[3]. තනියම තරග කළද නැතහොත් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සමග එක් වී තරග කළද මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනගේ පිලට ඡන්ද නොලැබෙනු ඇත. ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණටත් වඩා අඩු ඡන්ද සංඛ්‍යාවක් ශ්‍රීලනිපය ගත් විට මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනට රෙද්දක් ඇඳන් ශ්‍රීලනිප නායකත්වය හෙබවීමට නොහැකි වනු අත. එවිට ඒකමතිකිකව ශ්‍රීලනිප නායකත්වය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට නැවතත් ලැබෙනු ඇත. මෙය 2020 ජයග්‍රහණයේ සංධිස්ඨානයකි. ශ්‍රීලනිප නායකත්වය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට ලැබුණත් 2020 ඡන්දය ඉල්ලන්නේ අත ලකුණෙන් නොවේ. (යම් හෙයකින් අති විශාල ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණයකින් පළාත් පාළන මැතිවරණය පොහොට්‍ටුව ජය ගතහොත්, ජනමතයක් නොමැතිව රටක් පාලනය කිරීමට නොහැකි බැවින් 2018 අප්‍රියෙල් වෙද්දී ආණ්ඩුව විසිරුවීමට සිදුවෙනු ඇත.)

[4]. එය වන්නේ මෙසේ ය. ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණ වෙනම ඉදිරිපත් වූ විට මෛත්‍රීපාල පාර්ශවය සතුව පවතින්නෙ විකල්ප 3ක් පමණි. තනිව ඉල්ලීම, එජාපය හා ඉල්ලීම හා ඉල්ලා නොසිටීම ය. මෙහි එජාපය හා ඉල්ලුවොත් හෝ ඉල්ලා නොසිටිය හොත් සෘජුවම සමස්ත ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී බලවේගයම , රජයට විරුද්ධව සිටගනු ලැබේ. මෛත්‍රීපාල තනිව ඉදිරිපත් වුව හොත්, අවම වශයෙන් 3% වත් ඡන්ද ප්‍රතිශතයක් නොලබනු ඇත. එය ඔහු සතු වන තීරණාත්මක පරාජයකි. එමගින්ම ඔහුගේ නිදහස් පක්ෂය ගැලවී යනු ඇත. එහිදී ද රජයට 2/3 බලය අහිමිවනු ඇත. හුළඟ යන අතට ගසා යන එජාප මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ද එදා 17 කණ්ඩායම ගැලවුණා මෙන් එජාපෙන් ඉවත් වෙනු ඇත. එදා වේල ණය මත යැපෙන එජාපයට රටේ බහුතර ජනමතය නැති විට ණය දීමට කවුරුත් අකමැති වීමෙන් මුදල් නැතිව කොහොමත් ආණ්ඩු කිරීමට නොහැකි වෙනු ඇත.

[5]. මෛත්‍රීපාලගේ කණ්ඩායමට කවුරුන් හෝ සහය දේනම් ඔහු සමස්තයක් වශයෙන් වත්මන් යමපාලන ආණ්ඩුවට සහය දෙන අයෙකි. එජපය හා මෛත්‍රීපාල කණ්ඩායම බෙදී තරග කිරීමෙන් , රජයේ බලවේගය පරිපූණ ලෙස දෙකට බෙදී යයි. එයින් ආණ්ඩුවේ ඡන්ද ප්‍රතිශතයට වන හානිය, ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රතිශතයට වන හානියට වඩා ඉතා අධික ය.

[6]. ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී මහින්ද පාර්ශවය, යළි මෛත්‍රීපාල හා එක්වීමේ දී , එනයින්ම යමපාලන ආණ්ඩුවේ වැරදිවලින් කොටසකට කරගැසීමට ද සිදු වේ. එතැන් පටන් සාර්ථකව ආණ්ඩුව විවේචනය කිරීමක් කළ නොහැක. සහෝදර පක්ෂයක් බවට පත් වෙන මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනව විවේචනය කිරීමට නොහැකිව යයි. එනයින් ම ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ ඡන්ද , බෙදී වෙන්වී ඉල්ලන අවස්ථාවකටත් වඩා පහළ යනු ඇත.

[7]. මෛත්‍රීපාල සමග එක්ව තරග කිරීමේ ප්‍රතිඵලය පසුගිය 2017 මහ මැතිවරණයේදී අපි අත් දු‍ටුවෙමු. මෛත්‍රීපාලම පැවසූයේ ඔහු එජාපය ජයග්‍රහණයට උපකාර කළ බව යි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට අගමැති කම නොදෙන බවට අන්තිම මොහොතේ ලිපියක් ලිවීම, පක්ෂ ලේකම්වරුන්ව ඉවත් කිරීම, කිසිදු ජන ‍රැලියකට සහභාගී නොවීම, ජාතික ලයිතුව කොල්ල කා පරාජය වූ අයව නැවතත් පත් කිරීම ආදිය මගින් ඔහු එය ඔප්පු කළේ ය. එසේ වෙද්දී නැවතත් ඔහු සමග එකතු වී රෑ වැ‍ටුණ වලේ දවලුත් වැටීමට කටයුතු නොකළ යුතු ය.

[8]. යම් හෙයකින් මෛත්‍රීපාලගේ ශ්‍රීලනිපය සමග එක් වී ඒකාබද්ධ පොදු ජන පෙරමුණ, එජාපය පරාජය කර දිනුවා යැයි සිතමු. එතැන් පටන් මෛත්‍රීපාල, එස්බී දිසානායක, අප්පච්චි මළෝ, චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා ආදීන්ගේ සටන් පාඨය වන්නේ “අපියි දිනුවේ, ඒකාබද්ධය අපේ ඇඟේ එල්ලිලා ගොඩ ගියා, විධායක බලය තියෙන්නේ අපිට, කැමතිනම් එජාපය සමග එක්ව ආණ්ඩු පිහි‍ටුවීමට එකඟ වෙනු, බැරි අය විපක්ෂයට පල” යන්න ය. එය මෛත්‍රීපාල ගේ ම ජයග්‍රහණයකි. එය වක්‍රව ආණ්ඩුවේම ජයග්‍රහණයකි. එසේනම් එය රනිල්ගේත් ජයග්‍රහණයකි. එයින් අවම වශයෙන් සංකේතාත්මක ව වත් ජනවාරි 8 ජනමතය පරාද වන්නේ නැත.

[9]. ශ්‍රීලනිපයටත් ජයග්‍රහණයේ කොටසක් දී පළාත් පාළන මැතිවරණය ජය ගත් පසු මෛත්‍රීපාල රනිල් හවුල සුපුරුදු එට්කා , අතුරුදන්වීම් පනත්, නව ව්‍යවස්ථා සම්මත කිරීම දක්වා ගමන් කළොත් නවත්වන ක්‍රමයක් නැත. ඔහු ජනමතය යළි දිනා අවසන් ය. මහින්ද පාක්ෂිකයන් එවිට කළකිරී ව්‍යවස්ථාව ගැන ජනමත විචාරණයකටවත් ඡන්දය දීමෙන් වළකිනු ඇත. එනයින් එක්ව ඉල්ලීමෙන් වන්නේ , මහින්ද පාර්ශවය දිනුවත් ඒ ජන මතය ආණ්ඩුවටම පාවා දී , ව්‍යවස්ථා සඳහා ජනමතවිමසුමේ ජයග්‍රහණය ආණ්ඩුව ට ම පාවා දීම ය.

එකතු වෙන්න කියමින් තවමත් තර්ක කරන අයට මෙම ලිපිය පෙන්වමු.

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බැසිල් හිරු සලකුණේදී සියලුම ප්‍රශ්න වලට පිළිතුරු දෙයි. (VIDEO)

December 22nd, 2017

බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට එරෙහිව ආණ්ඩුවෙන් සිදුකරන ලද විවේචන ඇතුළුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණට අදාල සියලුම ප්‍රශ්න වලට එතුමා ඊයේ එනම් 18/12/2017 දින හිරු සලකුණේදී පිළිතුරු දීම් සිදුකළේ ය. එම වීඩියෝව පහතින්.

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සිරිසේන හා රනිල් යන දෙදෙනාම තමන්ගේ අසාර්ථකත්වයන් වෙනුවෙන් එකිනෙකාට චෝදනා කරමින් එකිනෙකා සමඟ තරඟ වැදෙනවිට සමහර මෝඩයෝ ඒ අයට ඡන්දය දෙනවා

December 22nd, 2017

මහින්ද පතිරණ

ආණ්ඩුවේ එකට ඉන්න එකට තීරණ ගන්න රනිල් හා සිරිසේන වෙන වෙනම ඡන්දය ඉල්ලා රටට කියන්නේ මොකක් ද? උදේ කැබිනට් එකේ එකට බඩු මිළ ඉහළ දාලා හවස වේදිකාවට ඇව්ත් දෙන්න දෙන්නට චෝදනා කර ගන්නව ද? සිරිසේන කියනව ද රනිල් හොරා කියල? රනිල් කියනව ද සිරිසේන හොරා කියල? දෙන්න දෙන්නට ම කියා ගන්නව ද මම නෙමෙයි අනෙකා තමා රටේ ආර්ථිකය විනාශ කළේ කියල?

දැන් මෙහෙම චෝදනා එකිනෙකාට නැතිනම් ඔවුන් ඇයි වෙන වෙනම ඡන්දය ඉල්ලන්නෙ? අනික වෙනම ඉල්ලනව නම් හා දෙපිරිසම පිළිගන්නව නම් තමන් නෙමෙයි අනෙකයි මේ ආසාර්ථකභාවයට වග කිව යුත්තේ කියල ඇයි එහෙනම් ඔවුන් තාමත් එකම ආණ්ඩුවෙ ඉන්නෙ? එකම කැබිනට් එකේ ඉන්නෙ? මේ විකෘතිය තේරුම් කරල දෙන්න කවුරුහරි ඉන්නව ද? එකම කුණුවෙච්ච ආණ්ඩුවක දකුණු අතයි වම් අතයි දෙපැත්තට අදින එකට මේ රටේ මිනිස්සු තාමත් රැවටෙනව ද?

Mahinda Pathirana

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FRUSTRATION

December 22nd, 2017

by Goolbai Gunasekara Courtesy The Island

December 21, 2017, 10:06 pm

I have a theory (totally un-researched except by me) that frustration is the first emotional human experiences. Think about it. That first wail of protest from a new born is one of frustration at having been ejected from a warm, comfortable womb into an area of noise, an intrusive bustle of checking, cleaning up and wiping off before, finally, being transferred to a soft blanket and made comfortable. And I am not talking of the millions of births where there is no such tolerable entry Into this challenging life.

So welcome to the world where fustration reigns supreme. If one is fortunate enough to live in a country with a stable economy and a functioning public service system along with a caring and efficient Government then one is lucky indeed. The people of most Western countries, where such a happy state normally exists grumble of course, but their grumbles are not usually based on the basics of life which any any tax paying population has a right to expect.

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In Sri Lanka our grumbles are not mere grumbles. They are a desperate cries for help concerning our daily existence …. Unusable roads, lack of water, floods and landslides, a type of education we do not necessarily want, a GMOA that should really be ashamed of itself, a system of justice that does our country no credit, a local government under dozens of Ministers , Deputy Ministers and State Ministers that has to be one of the numerically largest governments of one of the smallest and least efficient governments in the world. These are some of our frustrations.

I was reading of a new Dance step titled “the Politician”. It seems to suit Sri Lankan politics as if tailormade for it. One takes two steps forward, one step backward, and then a sidestep. Describes most of our politicians doings doesn’t it?

I can make an endless lists that lead to hair- tearing but for now let me stick to those that beset me, and others, each morning as we open the morning papers. There is no cheering news. “The first thing every morning when we get out of bed we look in the newspaper to see if the world is still there,” said an American wit. Indeed, we do and depression deepens instantly. Let’s start with our Airlines since it has just caught my eye in today’s doom and gloom reporting. Each day we are told of the tremendous losses our National Air Lines have incurred but we are never told how the problem is going to be solved. Is it going to be solved at all may I ask? What is really frustrating is that no one seems to take responsibility for the fraud that has taken place and whether the government intends to recover the losses that run into millions? Who takes the blame? If no one is blamed then the Minister himself must shoulder the responsibility and resign instantly.

We have Srilankan, Mihin Air and Sajin de Vaas’s shenanigans to contend with and so far the laughable sum recovered from that major wheeler dealer has been a mere Rs. 1000/ for not declaring his assets. This from a man who has been suspected of mishandling enormous sums and running MIHIN AIR to the ground.. So were his assets finally declared and may we know what they were?

The judgment of a Rs 1000/ fine was ridiculous in extreme and the frustration felt by the public is great. Why has de Vaas not been brought to book and punished for the massive losses he managed to run up? He should have been one of the first to be questioned within a year of the new Govt. coming to power? As far as we can see he has got away with it. WHY is this? Someone has made a lot of money. WHO is it?

The right people involved in local scandals are never punished. Igniting public wrath recently two of the most respected public servants, Lalith Weeratunga and Saliya Wickremesuriya were publicly humiliated and remanded for merely carrying out orders, for which they shouldered the blame–– and everyone knew it.

The recent petrol shortage inconvenienced the entire country. Again who took the blame? No one of course. Arjuna Ranatunga acted as if he was above criticism. His inefficiency deserved instant dismissal as a Minister. Certainly the public is still furious at the great difficulties it faced during those three days. What really enraged us was that ministers were sweeping past us in air conditioned comfort using three or four MORE cars as security while queues of irate drivers were sweltering inside stationery cars waiting for a just little gas to get by on.

What we want to know is why even ONE security car is necessary for anyone other than the President and the Prime Minister? There is no threat to the men who occupy ministerial positions these days. There is no one worth actually killing anyway. Ministers want to look important at the expense of the taxpayer and demand all sorts of security gimmicks. In one of the earlier Governments even the young son of a Minister of Justice was flaunting three security men round him. It was maddening and the young man’s airs amused us mightily. In the UK, by contrast, even MPs and sometimes Ministers use the bus to get to Parliament if necessary. There is no status loss because of it.

In my mind’s eye I visualise the impossible scenario of our MPs and even Ministers using public transport up to the gates of the House and then being transported thereafter by cars belonging to the Parliament complex. One hopes they have to wait their turn, in the rain, for the cars to turn up and give them a lift. It will give them some idea of what the public goes through each day.Our parliamentarians are not an educated bunch we hear. It is rumoured that most of them do not have their ALevels.how can they run a country? We cannot govern with just a few highly qualified men like Dr. Amunugama, Mr. Swaminathan, Dr. Peiris, and a few others who often belong to different parties and are of no use to the country as an educated bloc.

Hopefully, albeit foolishly, we watch the TV news each day and view the pathetic scene of Parliamentarians debating. Debate is hardly the operative word here. They yell a lot. They do not say anything remotely interesting or of any value to us. How is the country benefitting, we ask ourselves in dismay, when all we hear are quarrels over trivia and personal matters aired among themselves.

We are not reassured after hearing Parliamentary debates. Where are the answers we want? We want to know WHEN the Bond Scam will end. WHEN those accused of financial fraud will be brought to book and those billions recovered. WHEN the Golden Key matter is settled to the satisfaction of those so egregiously treated by the Kotelawelas. WHEN the Thajudeen case will be brought to some acceptable conclusion and WHEN dozens of other highly publicized and questionable matters are to be settled. Crooks are getting away with massive sums and openly say that nothing will happen to them. Our blood pressure rises higher by the day. Mine is going through the roof.

I now get to the Electricity supply. Sri Lankan electricity costs are among the highest in the world. We are told that here too millions are owed in back payments to the Govt. by the power providers but we are not told how that money is going to be recovered. In the meantime electricity bills are rising and we gnash our teeth in fury when we are told that Ministers are spending lakhs on their own comfort. Why does the Govt. yield to these greedy and arrogant MPs who demand better cars, better housing and better salaries for doing NOTHING except in piecemeal fashion with no clear objective to work toward.

Our Power system must be so badly maintained that after heavy storms the electricity in the suburbs is cut for a full day at a time to effect repairs. What happens in the outstations is anyone’s guess. Nobody cares and the men on the spot blame a far away grid. Frantic telephone calls to the electricity centres are of no use. The phone has been taken off the hook and is constantly engaged. Repairs to electricity lines out of the main cities can take days I am told. On a hot April day one can but imagine the feelings ( if not the actual health) of those living in an enforced heated atmosphere. Is it any wonder the murder rate rises! I feel quite murderous myself.

But if those rising electricity bills are not paid the power is cut. How does the Govt. dare to face us when it does not give us the basic comfort of a continual power supply?

Fertiliser – or rather the lack of it is my next frustration on behalf of the farmers. Each night this past week I have listened on the news to the desperation of the farmers who angrily blame an uncaring Ministry ( and of course Minister) for the lack of fertilizer. In one district they had experienced FOUR years of drought but at last, this year, the rains came. They planted their paddy full of hope but when they tried to buy fertilizer they were actually told there were no stocks. NO STOCKS. This seems unbelievable. The anger and indeed anguish of the farmers came through clearly in the TV interviews with them. They were infuriated with the Government and said so openly.

They had hoped to recoup their losses yet here was an uncaring and inefficient Govt. telling them it was not prepared with fertilizer to sell. Yesterday (after it was probably too late) the TV News showed bags of fertiliser being finally unloaded at depots but which was being RATIONED out to the farmers. The Govt, still did not have enough fertilizer for the incensed farmers. As I write this the papers have just reported that there are no stocks of Urea either. Can this be really happening to the farmers of an agricultural country like Sri Lanka? Surely the Minister or at least the head of the Fertiliser Corporation should resign in shame. But no one takes the blame and shame is unknown to most politicians and Heads of Govt. Corporations depts. in our island.

Rivers of words have been written about Education and yet it is on a downslide I regret to say. There is really no Free Education. The tuition fiasco is far more expensive than a fee paying system would have been. Syllabuses are regularly altered, changed, added to, subtracted from, and sometimes totally newly organized. New requirements are added and each successive Minister of Education thinks he has the answer to all ills. He doesn’t.

The first formidable problem is a lack of good teachers. Graduates are often quite unknowledgeable in anything but their own subject. They do not have an all round education and their reading is nonexistent. How can they teach students to look up to them as they are basically poorly educated and do not have any social and people skills? Nor can they adapt their education to anything other than merely reproducing what they were taught.

Education is knowing what you want, knowing where to get it and knowing what to do with it afterwards. Our students do not have that choice. They get an education depending on the area rule. They do not really have a choice in what they want and they have not got the faintest idea what to do with it. They wait for the Govt. to handle that part of their life too. Education means developing the mind not stuffing the memory, which is all our undergraduates do.

University students are an ungrateful and undeserving bunch on the whole and thanks to the quota system many of the University undergraduates have no business in a University. What is still unbelievable to many of us is that the Govt. continues to lavish money on these quota system students who then turn round and have the audacity to keep asking for more. In short they bite the hand that feeds them.

A headline in one of our papers recently said “University graduates DEMAND jobs as promised.” How dare students who have had a free run in education all their lives ask for further favours. Let them find their own jobs. University students in the USA take any job they are lucky to find in order to pay off their loans. They know the value of what they have had to pay for. Nothing is more infuriating than seeing these ungrateful young men and women in Sri Lanka expecting to be looked after from womb to tomb without any system of payback in place. We see the Govt. trying to placate them to earn future votes. “Stop trying” we feel like screaming at the Govt.. Get tough with those worthless youngsters. Never mind your votes.

The system of education will never improve until we find good teachers. There is no point “upgrading’ schools to higher categories when the same old teachers and the same dreary methods continue to operate. The public is outraged by the hundreds of tales in the Daily Press telling us of the appalling sexual behavior of Principals and teachers towards their pupils. By the way how was the Principal who treated a non- pregnant girl so atrociously, punished? As usual we have not got a feed back.

As for our system of Justice the less said the better. As some one said Justice is for all but it doesn’t seem to be equally distributed. It certainly isn’t. The public is truly disgruntled at the manner in which certain former VIPs are whisked in and out of remand for the same offence. If they are guilty why has Justice taken over two years to come to a decision.. Either pronounce guilt or else free them and stop wasting our money.

Justice delayed is justice denied and we all know we cannot expect justice. I have a driver who needs to take a day off every four months or so to settle a land dispute which has gone on for TWENTY SIX years. Judges must be pretty stupid if they cannot understand a land dispute and settle it within a month. The Americans brought the Madoff Ponzi Scheme to a conclusion in record time. By the time land cases are settled in Sri Lanka the plaintiffs have died.

It is the same story with almost every litigant. No wonder people prefer to settle affairs themselves with violence or even murder. The few highly respected names we could mention like those of former Supreme Court Judge Shiranee Tilakawardena or present Supreme Court Judge Prasanna Jayawardene and of course some others, are few and far between. “Four things are required of a Judge –” To hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly and to decide impartially,” runs a well known adage. Added to that should be this clause, “And finally to decide with reasonable speed which allows justice to be done.”

I have just received an appeal from an environmentalist regarding the deforestation and starting of settlements in one of our most loved National Parks – namely the Wilpattu Game Sanctuary. Why should such a petition be even necessary. Is the Minister in charge not aware of such goings on in a place of such importance? Why do we have to point out to him what he should be taking care of anyway? He must either act or resign if he cannot handle his Ministerial work.

The goings on of the Buddhist priests is another outrageous situation. I realize Priests are not under any one person’s authority but only that of yet another priest but the Govt. can stop asking for advice from a group of people clearly not educated in the business of modern political governance in the world. Why are we giving them an importance they do not deserve.

I hope no devout Buddhist is going to tell me that during “our glorious past, priests advised kings, That was in the past. World politics are quite another matter. Buddhist priests who should be in their temples meditating and teaching the religion to the young, etc., now hold positions of registered tourist guides, politicians, heads of unions and believe it or not, the Governor of the Rotary Clubs of Sri Lanka at the moment is a Buddhist priest.

Can we expect any surcease from the present Govt.? I have merely scratched the surface of our discontent. Businessmen openly say they are appalled by the lack of an all-round progress in the economy. There is no co-hesion amongst the Ministries and no co-operation among the Ministers. There is no concerted plan of action for the upliftment of the country. We would give anything to read, “Sri Lanka is now on the rise of concerning food production,” and other such like cheerful headlines. Even Cricket seems to reflect the malaise affecting the country.

Ministers – please forget your next voting numbers and think rather of what you can do NOW. Remember the average man will not stay merely angry for much longer. As fury increases the Govt. would do well to placate the citizens living out of Colombo. The succinct saying, ” Many people see their duty in time to dodge it,” and this describes most of our Parliamentary incumbents. Those in power may bitterly regret they do not act sensibly now.

It is my simplistic view that we do not need more than 10 hard working Ministers with all government Departments securely under them and with responsibility totally theirs. Let salaries be very high so that temptation to be corrupt is not necessary. Let there be a strong civil service who can say ‘no’ to a Minister if need be. Insist that Ministers have acceptable Degrees of at least some qualification which ensures they understand world politics and how Sri Lanka is affected. Let security guards be at a minimum and let these 10 Ministers get nothing more than a standard car plus a reasonable house in which to live. We may soon be in the happy position of very few wanting to enter politics since it is no longer a money-making opportunity and perhaps we may have men like Dudley Senanayake, C,P. de Silva, and others of their ilk at the helm of affairs again. Dreams DO come true, don’t they?

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Make Provincial Council Elections a Referendum Against Sirisena –Ranil Government.

December 21st, 2017

By Charles.S.Perera

It appears that this so called Yahapalanaya government cannot be removed until 2020, but we can perhaps force it to change by showing its unpopularity amoung the people, by electing Provincial Council candidates from the Podujana Peramuna.

Podujana Peramuna represents the original SLFP of SWRD Bandaranayake. Podujana Peramuna also has the parliamentarians from the previous Mahinda Rajapakse Government which had contributed to the development of Sri Lanka into a modern country despite the continued braying by the Yahapalanaya of corruption.

We will go on to see why President Sirisena’ SLFP and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe’s UNP are neither people friendly, nor are they capable of developing the country. But people see how under their leadership the country is backsliding from where it was before January,2015, towards being a failed state with no future. The only prospect of for the country under them is its being territorial broken up, and communally separated.

The JVP which also helped to bring into power the SLFP-UNP joint yahpalanaya has now become its bitter critic to bluff the people into believing that they are the best alternative to rule the Provincial Councils, or the Country after the failure of the SLFP and the UNP as rulers.

The JVP politicians who make the biggest rumpus, to deliver nothing have not won the trust of the ordinary people. JVP had been working incessantly for the continuation of the disastrous policies of UNP, therefore the people should not vote for them at the Provincial Council election.

Now let us see what we the Sri Lankans have to do today with the Local Government elections in the Agenda ?

Lets us see why we should vote against the Provincial Council Candidates put forward by the Political Parties which compose Sirisena Ranil Yahapalanaya Government.

Sirisena-Ranil Yahapalanaya Government has denied for more than two and a half years the democratic right of the people to have their own elected representatives to help them in their every day needs at provincial and village levels. These political parties which make up the so called Yahapalanaya-SLFP, UNP, JVP,SLMC,JHU,TNA etc. have no right to present their representatives at provincial and village levels as they too would only bring about the same disaster they have brought to the country at Parliamentary level ?

Do our people at provincial and village levels really know what Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickramasinghe have done to Sri Lanka since 8^th January,2015, or are they still listening only to the horrors these Yahapalanaya Champions say that had been done to Sri Lanka by the President Mahinda Rajapakse ?

But the peoples of every community, despite the ranting of their political leaders know that they would not have seen the change Sri Lanka went through from 2005 to 2014 under Mahinda Rajapakse. And they also know what negative effect the development of Sri Lanka faced after the election of Sirisena-Ranil Yahapalanaya. The Yahapalanaya rule during the period 2015 to 2017 had been an utter failure, without a singly development project they can say they have undertaken and completed.

President Sirisena keeps ordering the Armed Forces to vacate the land they occupy in the North and East and hands them over to the Tamils to facilitate reconciliation, while Wigneswaran refuses to allow Sinhala refugees to go back to their lands in the North, and Sumanthiran damands the removal of Buddhism from State protection and write a new Constitution making Sri Lanka a secular country .

Under these circumstances where is reconciliation ?

It is evident that Wigneswaran, Sivajilingam, Sumanthiran and the rest do not want reconciliation. Therefore why should we allow Sirisena and Ranil to sell in the pretex of reconciliation, the Sinhala Buddhist Culture , their religion and all that rightly belong to them to please the Tamils.

That is why it is imperative that the people show through their vote at the Provincial Council Elections, that they do not want the Yahapalanaya Government of Sirisena and Ranil decide the future of Sri Lanka and its people.

President Sirisena takes every opportunity to accuse the former President Mahinda Rajapakse for some fraud or another . Sirisena now makes a big issue of the sale of 10 acres of land to Sangrilla Hotel shifting the Sri Lanka Army Head Quarters from Colombo Fort making Colombo unsafe, while he had allowed the sale of the Hambanthota harbour and thousands of acres of prime land to China.

The danger to Colombo may come again from the terrorists in the North or the sleeping terrorists encouraged by Wigneswaran the new Prabhakaran of the North .”– The means to challenge such a threat would be by keeping a larger numbers of military camps in the North and East. But instead of that President Maithripala Sirisena continues to disband military camps in the North and distribute the land amoung the people.

But Sirsena does not seem to know that when the Army Head Quarters was removed from Colombo Fort, Mahinda Rajapakse had already started to construct at Pelawatte using the money received from the sale of the land to Sangrilla, a Sri Lanka Defence Head Quarters worthy of Sri Lanka’s terrorist war winning heroic Armed Forces.

Unfortunately the construction of new Head Quarters for the Armed Forces was stopped on Rajitha Seanaratne’s accusation of a financial Fraud. They have still failed to find evidence of such fraud but the construction work of the Head Quarters at Pelwatta have come to stop.

Maihripala Sirisena- Ranil Wickramasinghe SLFP UNP joint Government do not speak for Buddhists or Buddhism as it affects negatively their reconciliation process with the Tamils. This absurd reconciliation is the demand of the friends of Yahapalanaya- USA , the West and Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein the HC UNHRC.

Recently the USAmbassador had even said that Sri Lanka should have a Federal Constitution !!!

UNP from D.S.Senanayake down to Ranil Wickramasinghe are not supporters of Buddhism. On this it is worth reading what Janaka Perera had written in an article to Lankaweb on the 20^th December,2017.

Mettananda noticed that the Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake’s Government was neither prepared to give Government patronage to Buddhism as in the pre-colonial days nor was it keen to give to the Buddhists the same rights the Christians enjoyed in all spheres of society. Had the UNP rulers been far-sighted enough to enforce at least the latter policy, this country would have been spared of the many upheavals that followed. It is very unfortunate that UNP election manifestos failed to focus on the restoration of the rights of the majority which were trampled en masse by the British Raj.……….Among the many contenders to shoulder the mantle of Anagarika Dharmapala’s legacy and to continue his work to restore Buddhism to its due place in Lankan society particularly in the difficult transitional phase of the country’s history is L.H. Mettananda.He gave voice to the calls of the Buddhists to re-establish a Buddhist Social Order as existed in the pre-colonial period, though has not materialized to date due to the machinations of anti-Buddhist forces and other dubious elements.”

From the beginning the Yahapalanaya Government of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe had shown that they are only capable of pointing their fingers of accusation at others. They have at no point of time pointed their accusatory fingers at themselves, to do an introspection of themselves to see what wrongs they have done, and where they have gone wrong.

Their obsession of the President Mahinda Rajapakse , and their determination to take revenge from him has resulted in Sri Lanka, which was developing into being a modern stated since 2005, become poorer, its economy on the slump, lose its sovereignty being constantly interfered into by the USA, the West and the UN, with all development projects neglected , its wealth sold to China and India.

The Air Lanka- the National Air Line has been neglected and is on the verge of bankruptcy. The Yahapalanaya has allowed our Central Bank to be stolen, allowed Sri Lanka loose its unique identity as a Buddhist Sinhala country, allowed Sri Lanka loose its ancient cultural values, denied the government servants their pension rights, divided the people, and taken away peace and protection that was restored in 2009 by Mahinda Rajapakse.

Under this Sirisena -Ranil Government even our tea has lost its commercial importance , and our tea is for the first time refused to be purchased by foreign countries.

It is these facts that should be highlighted to make the people vote against the UNP and SLFP Candidates, and the candidates of the JVP at the coming Provincial Council Elections, encouraging them to vote en mass for the candidates of the Podujana Peramuna

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WILL THEY FORGET THE HORRIBLE NIGHTS?

December 21st, 2017

ALI SUKHANVER

Will Mr. Modi succeed in winning the hearts of the Muslims in India? Will it be possible for the Muslims to forget the days when the streets of Gujarat were flooding with their blood during the reign of Mr. Modi? Will they forget the horrible nights when the Hindu extremists were pulling them out of their houses and slaughtering them like animals? No certainly not, they would forget nothing but Modi sahib thinks they have a very weak memory. Now-a-days, a video clip of him is getting viral and viral on social media; certainly the credit of making this clip viral goes to the media team of Mr. Modi. The clip shows Mr. Modi addressing a huge crowd of general public. During his speech, at once Azaan started coming from a nearby mosque. Mr. Modi simply stopped his speech and waited for the Azaan to end up.

The crowd included a large number of Muslims too. They all started clapping and raising slogans in favor of Mr. Modi. Someone among the crowd said talking to the media, Modi sahib is a symbol of inter-faith unity and harmony in India.” The Indian media also took full advantage of Modi’s timely action of stopping his speech in honour of the Azaan and started a very well organized media move to portray Mr. Modi as a very moderate rather a secular leader of India. It is a very good effort on the part of Indian media but what to do with the horrible memories of 2002 when the Muslims of Gujarat had to cross a river of their own blood. Aditya Chakrabortty is a senior economics commentator for the Guardian. He penned down an article on 7^th April 2014 in which he said, Narendra Modi, a man with a massacre on his hands, is not the reasonable choice for India.

It looks likely that Modi will be India’s next prime minister. But his apologists can’t dismiss the facts about his rule as chief minister of Gujarat. He bears a responsibility for some of the worst religious violence ever seen in independent India.” Now the same Modi Sahib is trying to win the hearts of the ever-crushed Muslims of India by stopping his address in honour of Azaan. However we must appreciate the role of Indian media for introducing Modi Sahib as a moderate and secular leader. In this modern world of us, media is no doubt the strongest weapon and certainly the most fatal one too as it has ‘earned’ the skill and ability of painting good into bad and bad into good. Today, if Pakistan is introduced as a land of religious extremists and India as a secular state, it is simply the result of the same media-talent. In other words it is the defeat of Pakistani media particularly the electronic media that a true and positive picture of Pakistan could not be conveyed to the world.

Mr. Modi is the most horrible example of religious extremism at state level, as he has the Gujarat Massacre of 2002 to his credit. That was the time when more than 1,000 Muslims were brutally butchered by the Hindu extremists under the ‘kind’ command of the Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr. Modi. Though Mr. Modi has always denied his involvement in that massacre but the investigators have another story to tell. Sanjiv Bhatt, a senior police officer said in his sworn statement to India’s Supreme Court that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi deliberately allowed anti-Muslim riots in the state. He said in his statement that he had attended a meeting at which Mr. Modi had said that the Hindus should be allowed to give vent to their anger. Sanjiv Bhatt was that time posted at the Gujarat intelligence bureau. Because of that posting he got a chance of gathering large amounts of information before and during the violence. He said in his statement that he had attended an official meeting the night before the riots.

In that meeting Mr. Modi told the officials that the Muslim community needed to be taught a lesson. It is not Mr. Modi alone; there are so many others also in BJP, more poisonous and more lethal. Shailesh Mehta is also one of them. He is a BJP candidate from Gujrat. Addressing a crowd during his recent election campaign, he said, If any ‘topi, daarhiwala’ (anybody wearing a cap and sporting beard means Muslim) is sitting here in the crowd, pardon me, but there is a need to reduce their population. Many leaders asked me not to say this, as it may go against me, but if 90 per cent of people are supporting me, why should I stop speaking about the 10 per cent people?”

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Russia and China Challenge US Dollar Domination

December 21st, 2017

By F. William Engdahl Courtesy Global Research,

The Russian government has recently announced it will issue nearly $1 billion equivalent in state bonds, but denominated not in US dollars as is mostly the case. Rather it will be the first sale of Russian bonds in China’s yuan. While $1 billion may not sound like much when compared with the Peoples’ Bank of China total holdings of US Government debt of more than $1 trillion or to the US Federal debt today of over $20 trillion, it’s significance lies beyond the nominal amount. It’s a test run by both governments of the potential for state financing of infrastructure and other projects independent of dollar risk from such events as US Treasury financial sanctions.

Russian Debt and China Yuan

Since the August 1998 sovereign default triggered by the West, Russian state finances have been prudent to almost a fault. The size of the national government debt is the lowest of any major industrial country, a mere 10.6% of GDP for the current year. This has enabled Russia to withstand the US financial warfare sanctions imposed since 2014, and forced the country to turn elsewhere for their financial stability. That elsewhere” is increasingly called the Peoples’ Republic of China.

Now the Russian Ministry of Finance is reportedly planning the first sale of Russian debt in the form of bonds denominated in Chinese yuan currency. The size of the first offering, a testing of the market, will be 6 billion yuan or just under $1 billion. The sale is being organized by the state-owned Russian Gazprombank, the Bank of China Ltd., and China’s largest state bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China. The move is being accelerated by reports that the US Treasury is examining potential consequences of extending penalties, until now concentrated on Russian oil and gas projects, to include Russian sovereign debt in its sanctions warfare. The new yuan bond will be traded on the Moscow Exchange and will aim to sell to mainland Chinese investors as well as international and Russian borrowers at attractive interest rates.

Western sanctions or threats of sanctions are forcing Russia and China to cooperate more strategically on what is becoming the seed of a genuine alternative to the dollar system. The Russian yuan debt offerings will also give a significant boost to China’s desire to build the yuan as an accepted international currency.

China Petro-Yuan

The steps to begin issuing Russian state debt in yuan are paralleled by another major development towards broader international yuan acceptance vis a vis the US dollar. On December 13, Chinese regulators completed final testing in preparation for launch of not a dollar-backed, but rather, a yuan-backed oil futures contract to be traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. The implications are potentially large.

China is the world’s largest oil importing country. Control of financial oil futures markets until now has been the tightly-guarded province of Wall Street banks and the New York, London and other futures exchanges they control. Emergence of Shanghai as a major yuan-based oil futures center could significantly weaken dollar domination of oil trade.

Since the 1970’s oil shock and the 400% rise in the oil price from OPEC countries, Washington has maintained a strict regime in which the world’s most valuable commodity, oil, would be traded in US dollars alone. In December 1974, the US Treasury signed a secret agreement in Riyadh with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, to establish a new relationship through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with the US Treasury borrowing operation” to buy US government debt with surplus petrodollars.

The Saudis agreed to enforce OPEC dollar-only oil sales in return for US sales of advanced military equipment (purchased for dollars of course) and a guarantee of protection from possible Israeli attack. This was the beginning of what then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called recycling the petro-dollar. To the present, only two oil export country leaders, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Qaddafi, have tried to change the system and sell oil for euros or gold dinars. Now China is challenging the petro-dollar system in a different way with the petro-yuan.

The difference between Saddam Hussein or Qaddafi is that far more influential countries, Russia and now Iran, with China’s implicit support, are cooperating to avoid the dollar out of necessity forced by US pressure. That is a far stronger challenge to the US dollar than Iraq or Libya could ever manage.

The China yuan oil futures contract now will allow China’s trading partners to pay with gold or to convert yuan into gold without the necessity to keep money in Chinese assets or turn it into US dollars. Oil exporters such as Russia or Iran or Venezuela—all targets of US sanctions—can avoid those US sanctions by avoiding oil trades in dollars now. This past September Venezuela responded to US sanctions by ordering the state oil company and traders to make oil sale contracts into euro and not to pay or be paid in US dollars any longer.

Gold for oil?

The Shanghai International Energy Exchange will soon launch their crude-oil futures contract denominated in yuan. The Shanghai International Energy Exchange futures contract will streamline and solidify the process of selling oil to China for yuan that Russia began after sanctions in 2014. This will also allow other oil producers around the world to sell their oil for yuan instead of dollars. The crude oil futures contract will be the first commodity contract in China open to foreign investment funds, trading houses, and oil firms. The circumvention of US dollar trade could allow oil exporters such as Russia and Iran, for example, to bypass US sanctions.

To make the offer more attractive, China has linked the crude-oil futures contract with the option to efficiently convert yuan into physical gold through gold exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong. According to Wang Zhimin, director of the Center for Globalization and Modernization at China’s Institute of Foreign Economy and Trade, the possibility of converting the yuan oil futures into gold will give the Chinese futures a competitive advantage over Brent and West Texas Intermediate benchmarks.

Now Russia or Iran or other oil producers are in a position to sell oil to China for yuan or rubles, bypassing the dollar entirely. The shift is about to take place in the coming weeks as the yuan oil futures contract is officially launched. Further in October China and Russia launched what is called a payment versus payment (PVP) system for Chinese yuan and Russian ruble transactions that will reduce settlement risk for oil and other trades.

Already reportedly Russian oil and gas sales to China are being conducted in Ruble and Yuan and since the foolish US effort to isolate Qatar in the Persian Gulf, Qatar, a major LNG gas supplier to China has switched to pricing in yuan. Pressure is growing that at some point Saudi Arabia breaks its 1974 pact with Washington and sells its oil to China also for yuan.

Iran to Join EEU

A new element is about to be added to the growing cooperation across Eurasia centered around China and Russia, namely Iran. According to Behrouz Hassanolfat of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, in a statement carried on Iranian state-owned Press-TV, as early as February, 2018 Iran is set to become a member of Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Presently the EEU, created in 2015, includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan to create a large zone for free transit of goods, services, capital and workers among member states. Presently the EEU is a market of 183 million people. Addition of Iran with its more than 80 million citizens would give a major boost to the economies of the EEU and to its economic importance, creating a common market of more than 263 million, with skilled labor, engineers, scientists and industrial know-how.

Iran has already announced, in face of escalating threats from Washington, that it seeks ways to sell its oil for non-dollar currencies. Integration into the EEU could bring a solution to this as Iran, Russia and China inevitably draw closer in face of relentless US pressures on all three.

Increasingly in proportion to the pressure from the West the nations of Eurasia are developing modes of growing their economies independent of US Treasury financial sanctions. In retrospect, it’s likely that those US sanctions will be seen as one of the more stupid attempts of Washington to dominate the economies of Eurasia.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook” where this article was originally published.

Featured image is from NEO.

The original source of this article is Global Research

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UN human rights chief quits after Trump Jerusalem decision, saying he will not ‘bend a knee in supplication’

December 21st, 2017

Chris Baynes Courtesy The Independent•December 21, 2017

The United Nations human rights chief is to step down, suggesting that his re-election would involve ”lessening the independence and integrity of my voice” after his outspoken criticism of world powers – including the US.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said he would not seek a second four-year term as the High Commissioner for Human Rights, telling staff in an email: To do so, in the current geopolitical context, might involve bending a knee in supplication”.

The Jordanian Prince had reportedly been under pressure to tone down his criticism of Donald Trump, who he has previously described as dangerous” and blamed for a surge in discrimination, anti-Semitism, and violence against ethnic and religious minorities”.

This week Mr Hussein described the US decision to recognise Jerusalem of the capital of Israel as dangerously provocative” and blamed the President’s announcement for violence in which five people died.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had urged Mr Hussein to ease off his public criticism of the American President over fears it put US support for the United Nations at risk, reported Foreign Policy, which obtained the human rights chief’s email to staff.

In the statement, Mr Hussein wrote: After reflection, I have decided not to seek a second four-year term. To do so, in the current geopolitical context, might involve bending a knee in supplication; muting a statement of advocacy; lessening the independence and integrity of my voice – which is your voice.

There are many months ahead of us: months of struggle, perhaps, and even grief – because although the past year has been arduous for many of us, it has been appalling for many of the people we serve.”

He did not specifically mention the US, Mr Trump, or pressure to tone down criticism. But his decision to step down raises questions about the UN’s role as a champion of human rights.

Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for Global Advocacy at Human Rights Watch(HRW), described Mr Hussein as a beacon of moral clarity” and said it was sad to see he felt that he had no other choice but to step down at the end of his first mandate to protect the integrity of his voice”.

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of HRW, said Mr Hussein had faced working in a hostile environment”.

A spokesman for Mr Guterres confirmed Mr Hussein would depart at the end of his current term in August.

He said: The High Commissioner informed the Secretary General last week of his intention not to seek another term. The High Commissioner has always enjoyed the full support of the Secretary General.”

The US ambassador to the UN this week warned she was taking names” of UN members who oppose Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The President threatened to withhold billions of dollars in aid from those nations which criticise his controversial decision.

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The tank, dagaba and the village

December 21st, 2017

by P.G.Punchihewa Ph.D.

November 4, 2017, 6:18 pm

Nearly two million people in at least 22 districts out of 25 are reported to be affected by the continuing drought. Among the districts are Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Kurunegala, Puttalam , Jaffna ,Kilinochchi, Mullativu ,Matale and Moneragala. Most of the large, medium and small tanks in the dry zone have partially or completely dried up and in certain instances peasants are abandoning their villages for want of water for their daily use. It is a pathetic sight to see thousands and thousands of fish wriggling, struggling for survival in the mud pools of the tank beds. The last drought experienced had been forty years ago but as it is, the present one could be unprecedented. According to the World Food Programme the water levels in reservoirs as reported in September this year was 18% compared with 47% last year.

Following are some of the large reservoirs in some of the affected districts:

article_image

Anuradhapura – Padaviya, Mahavilachchiya, Mahakandarawa, Nuwarawewa, Nachchaduwa, Huruluwewa and Rajangana; Polonnaruwa -Kaudulla, Minneriya, Giritale and Parakramasamudraya; Mannar –Yodawewa; Moneragala – Muthukandiyawewa; Mullaitivu -Muthiyankaddu; Trincomalee – Kantale; Puttalam – Inginimitiya; Kurunegala – Magallawewa, Hawatuna Oya; Kilinochchi – Iranamadu

Each of these reservoirs except Muthukandiyawewa in Moneragala District commands an area exceeding 1,000 ha.

In 2015 three districts, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kurunegala alone contributed nearly one third of paddy production of the island. The same year recorded a 129.5 rate of self-sufficiency in paddy production for the country.

Ancient irrigation system

There was a time when Sri Lanka took pride in its irrigation system. Judge C.G.Weeramantry in the famous Gabcikovo–Nagymaros case, quoting Arnold Toynbee refers to the ‘amazing systemof water works, how hill streams were tapped and their water guided into giant storage tanks, some of them four thousand acres in extent from which channels ran to other larger tanks. Below each great tank and each great channel were hundreds of great little tanks each the nucleus of a village’. He also quotes King Parakramabahu who laid the principle that not even a drop of rain water must be allowed to flow into the ocean without being made useful to man .Justice Weeramantry adds that according to the ancient chronicles these works were undertaken for the benefit of the country and out of compassion for all living creatures .The later Brahmi inscriptions increasingly refer to the donations of tanks to the Sangha. The sites where the cave inscriptions of the period from 1st century BC to 3rd century AD surprisingly overlap where the small tanks had existed .Thus arose the concept of the tank ,the dagaba (symbolizing the Buddhist ethos) and the village; (wawai, dagabai, gamai) three village level institutions intertwined and supporting one another; the tank symbolizing the material needs and the temple providing the spiritual and educational needs of the community. While the major tanks fed the smaller tanks the main role of the small village tank was to meet the multiple requirements of the people of which the main use was to provide water needs for two cultivations, Maha and Yala. In addition, their other requirement’s included domestic use, washing and bathing and meeting the needs of livestock, religious rituals and clay extraction for pottery and other needs. Also both migrant and resident water birds found the small tanks a safe haven.

Referring to the small tanks, according to Dr.C.R.Panabokke, ‘perhaps the most important function of the small tank was to recharge the shallow phreatic water table of this hard rock. It is this recharge of the phreatic water table which throughout the dry season that sustains the fresh water supply in the domestic wells located within the gangoda of the village hamlet without which village settlers could not have maintained their quality of life.’

The traditional hand dug domestic well located in the village gangoda below the small village tank had provided the village domestic requirements for several centuries despite their relatively low yields and seasonal water level fluctuations .

The Sangha and the influence of Buddhism

The influence of the Sangha over the rulers and the masses was great. Immediately after the introduction of Buddhism, Mahinda Thera in enunciating the Buddhist principle of compassion for all living creatures advised the King Devanampiyatissa

“O great King ,the birds of the air and the beasts have as equal a right to live and move about in any part of the land as you. The land belongs to the people and all living beings. You are only the guardian of it.”

The rulers, who followed, adhered to the advice given by the Thera. ‘Kings of Sri Lanka like Amandagamini 79-89 A.D, Silakala 524-537 A.D, Aggabodhi IV 658-674 A.D. and Mahinda III 797 -801 A.D. ordered that no animals should be slaughtered,’ says Professor Dhammavihari.

Abstaining from killing is the first precept of the five which laymen are expected to observe. Rulers and the masses abhorred killing of animals. There is no reference in the Sinhala and Pali literature or in rock inscriptions where the rulers encouraged killing of animals.

The reservoirs built by the ancient rulers were not meant for fish breeding for human consumption. It is possible that the villagers living close to them would have engaged in fishing in these tanks but never did the state, patronized fishing.

Inland fisheries

But now we observe the reverse is happening .Recent Governments which are duty bound by the constitution to protect the Buddha Sasana is openly encouraging and assisting the people to break the first precept.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Development is tasked with the development of marine brackish water and fresh water fisheries and the National Aquaculture Development Authority (NAQDA) under the Ministry is to contribute to the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of rural societies through alleviation of poverty by increasing freshwater and brackish water fish production .The breeding of fish is one the functions of NAQDA. The earlier slogan “wewai .dagabai and gamai” has now dropped the dagaba and stands as “wewak samaga gamak.”

The ancient rulers who built them would never have thought that a resource they gifted to the nation with compassion is being abused and is not serving the original purpose for which they were built. Whether there is a correlation between the drying up of reservoirs and their abuse is anybody’s guess.

Now the country is short of both rice and fish! The government is expected to import 500,000 M.T at around 100,000 M.T a month and the private sector from May this year has imported about 400,000 M.T.

(The writer who belonged to the former Ceylon Civil Service has served as Government Agent of Moneragala and Kalutara among other senior public service assignments. He retired as Secretary to the Ministry of Coconut Development and served in Jakarta as Executive Secretary of the Asia Pacific Coconut Community)

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U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation Reselects Sri Lanka to Continue Grant Programme

December 21st, 2017

Embassy of Sri Lanka Washington D.C

The Board of Directors of the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) reselected Sri Lanka for its grant programme at its meeting on December 19. This will enable MCC to continue developing its compact programme with the government of Sri Lanka for which Sri Lanka was selected a year ago, in December 2016.

MCC compact programmes are large, five-year grants for selected countries that meet MCC’s eligibility criteria of good governance, economic freedom and investment in their citizens. The selections are based on performance indicators compiled by MCC in an annual scorecard for countries under consideration.

As required by MCC procedure, MCC reselects countries already in compact development as part of its annual selection process. Sri Lanka’s reselection bears testament to the country’s continued progress on policy performance and reforms, including on democratic rights and control of corruption, and the strength of the government’s partnership with MCC since 2015. MCC’s recognition of Sri Lanka’s progress provides further impetus to the government’s political and economic reforms aimed at achieving sustainable peace and economic prosperity.

Since being selected eligible for a compact programme in December 2016, the government of Sri Lanka and MCC have been working together to develop projects with the aim of fighting poverty and promoting economic opportunity for the Sri Lankan people. In July, MCC announced $7.4 million in funding to support the development of the compact, including identifying and analyzing specific projects for potential investment. This amount is in addition to the total MCC compact funding amount, which is to be determined. Based on an analysis of the constraints to economic growth, Sri Lanka and MCC are currently conducting due diligence on potential projects in the transport and land sectors.

In December 2015, Sri Lanka was selected for an MCC Threshold Programme which are smaller grants awarded to countries that come close to MCC’s eligibility criteria, but are firmly committed to improving policy and performance. With Sri Lanka’s selection for a Compact Programme only a year later, MCC and Sri Lanka began work to transition into this much larger programme.

Created by the U.S. Congress in 2004 with bipartisan support, MCC is a unique U.S. agency that operates on the principle of delivering assistance on the basis of a long-term consultative partnership with recipient countries. Country ownership and country-led solutions for reducing poverty through sustainable economic growth are the underlying principles on which MCC grants are provided. Grants are designed to complement other U.S. and international development programmes, and to create an enabling environment for private sector investment. MCC holds partner countries accountable through rigorous oversight, monitoring and evaluation.

MCC’s Board of Directors is chaired by the Secretary of State. Its members include the Secretary of the Treasury, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Administrator of USAID, the Chief Executive Officer of MCC and four private sector representatives. The Board members are appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.

Read the press release issued by the MCC on its country selections this year at
www.mcc.gov/news-and-events/release/release-121917-december-board-meeting-selection

Embassy of Sri Lanka
Washington D.C

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ASBESTOS .WHOLE WORLD IS PANICKING And yet they drink Tea Cuppa in the morning infested with a single Beetle ?

December 21st, 2017

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Russians make Asbestos and used in many industries .I am sure that the warship we plan to buy has asbestors in lagging of their boilers ??

Quote

ASBEST, Russia — This city of about 70,000 people on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains is a pleasant enough place to live except for one big drawback: when the wind picks up, clouds of carcinogenic dust blow through.

Asbest means asbestos in Russian, and it is everywhere here. Residents describe layers of it collecting on living room floors. Before they take in the laundry from backyard lines, they first shake out the asbestos. When I work in the garden, I notice asbestos dust on my raspberries,” said Tamara A. Biserova, a retiree. So much dust blows against her windows, she said, that before I leave in the morning, I have to sweep it out.”

The town is one center of Russia’s asbestos industry, which is stubbornly resistant to shutting asbestos companies and phasing in substitutes for the cancer-causing fireproofing product.

I had to demolish a old Garage in my land in London and it took ne 4 months to get rid of Asbestos .The operation looked like a Post Nuclear attack to City of London !”

In the United States .UK and most developed economies, asbestos is handled with extraordinary care. Until the 1970s, the fibrous, silicate mineral was used extensively in fireproofing and insulating buildings in America, among other uses, but growing evidence of respiratory ailments due to asbestos exposure led to limits. Laws proscribe its use and its disposal and workers who get near it wear ventilators and protective clothes. The European Union and Japan have also banned asbestos. (A town called Asbestos in Quebec, Canada, has stopped mining asbestos, though it hasn’t changed its name.)

But not here, where every weekday afternoon miners set explosions in a strip mine owned by the Russian mining company Uralasbest. The blasts send huge plumes of asbestos fiber and dust into the air. Asbest is one of the more extreme examples of the environmental costs of modern Russia’s deep reliance on mining.

So entwined is the life of the town with this pit that many newlyweds pose on a viewing platform on the rim to have their pictures taken. The city has a municipal anthem called Asbestos, my city and my fate.” In 2002, the City Council adopted a new flag: white lines, symbolizing asbestos fibers, passing through a ring of flame. A billboard put up by Uralasbest in Asbest proclaims Asbestos is our Future.”

Unquote

We sri Lankans have worse problems to tackle .People inhale various carcinogenic substances in Coconut Shell and Fibre Processing Plants and in large rice mills in Pollonnaruwa .People inhale dust in hinterland and we start inhaling vehicle smoke in Colombo ‘

I myself living near the port with other poor masses in Kotahena inhaled a cocktail” of ducts emanating from Cement Plant,Flour Mill and Dust from Dockyard .I and my wife have a permanent Asthma due to this cocktail”

In Moratuwa many people have Asthma due to timber dust .Norrocholai and Puttalam Insee Cement also creating similar cocktails

Why do we bother to stop Asbestos .That is because we are trying to pretend that we are Developed and listen to Western countries .If Russia still produces Asbestos .I am sure they want a market elsewhere ?

Russia is member of UN .Any embargo should be ratified by UN as a Global Watchdog when they stop our Tea import.

If I am not mistaken even today Russia produces Vodka synthetically using hydro carbons .

When European small Vineyards make wines people crush grapes by standing an dtrampling grapes in a the big VAT .I am sure many insects are fermented in the Saint-Emilion vinery

There were snakes and poisonous insects in Bananas imported from Brazil to UK

I have seen many workers tea factories in Sri Lanka where people do not even wear head gear except in large known packing plants

Workers who pluck tea have no proper hygienic facilities, they discharge their excreta in the bushes and those unwashed slender hands pluck the tea manually.

Do we complain??

If these big countries try to throttle us by using such tactics we should do the same

Globalization has a price to pay .China has Globalized in a somewhat closed society with minimum respect to international protocols.

I read that a whole entourage is going to Russia and visit warehouses with Asbestos Roofs

Most probably they will drink that Vodkaof questionable origin , I mentioned above and eat a Savoury made from small tender ( gerkin) cucumber ,marinated in villages in barrels infested with lizards ?

If we are not perfect why do we try to show the world that we follow protocols such as C162 – Asbestos Convention, 1986 (No. 162) ??

Is this prohibition of Asbestos by our government instigated by companies who sell Color Coded Zink Aluminimum sheets? Or is it a capitalist maneuvering by Big time manufactures like Mascons and Rhyno ???

One day one might say that the oxide formed in Zink Alu ( Amano) are also poisonous and clothes made form fiber course cancer?

Very soon we will go back to stone ages .We may live naked in rock caves to avoid smog and dust from clothes , eating Beetles as they are full of vitamins ??

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

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Hundreds of Buddhists protest against aid agencies in Myanmar’s Rakhine

December 21st, 2017

YANGON (Reuters) – Hundreds of Buddhists took to the streets in western Myanmar on Sunday to protest against aid organizations they accuse of giving support to Muslim Rohingya militants, police and a protest leader said.

Buddhist monks and members of the Rakhine ethnic group held demonstrations in 15 towns, including the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, demanding that aid agencies leave the western state immediately, Htay Aung, a self-described leader of the protests, told Reuters by phone.

We will protest again and again until we get our demands. If the government fails to act, that is their responsibility,” he said.

Tensions have risen once again in Rakhine since seven Buddhists were found hacked to death in the mountains in the north of the state in July.

The government said it had discovered forest encampments that proved Muslim extremists” were responsible for the killings, and the military sent additional forces to the area this week.

At one suspected militant camp last month, biscuits originating from the United Nations’ World Food Programme were discovered. Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists have long accused U.N. and other aid organizations of favoring the Rohingya with aid.

CRACKDOWN

The state was plunged into violence in October, when Rohingya insurgents killed nine border police, sparking a crackdown in which government security forces were accused of raping, killing and torturing Rohingya civilians.

About 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in Rakhine, but are denied citizenship and face restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. About 120,000 remain in camps set up after deadly violence swept the state in 2012, where they rely on aid agencies for basic provisions.

Pictures shared online of Sunday’s protests showed saffron-robed monks holdings signs reading, We don’t need terrorist supporter group,” and calling for the U.N. and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) to get out”.

Htay Aung said the protesters demanded that the government rid the state of Muslim militants, quickly verify the citizenship credentials of Muslims and allow Rakhine Buddhists to form armed militias.

Police Major Cho Lwin estimated that about 600 people protested in Sittwe.

The protest went ahead today peacefully,” he said, adding that police had stepped up security and blocked roads leading to aid offices.

Reuters obtained the text of note sent by the U.N. on Wednesday to the 300 or so U.N. staff in Rakhine, as well as INGOs, warning of rising hostility to international agencies in the state.

Editing by Simon Lewis and Andrew Roche

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-un/hundreds-of-buddhists-protest-against-aid-agencies-in-myanmars-rakhine-idUSKCN1AT0CO

Wa Lone

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Rejections and rejects

December 21st, 2017

Editorial Courtesy The Island

December 21, 2017, 10:02 pm
There has been much brouhaha, for the past few days, over the rejection of some local government polls nominations lists. This is a common occurrence prior to every election. Politicians never learn and elections officials don’t relent. Therefore, the problem remains with no effort being made to solve it once and for all. In fact, it has become part of the electoral process in this country. The newly formed Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), consisting of SLFP/UPFA dissidents, has so far been the worst affected; it is apoplectic with rage at the rejection of several of its nomination lists.

Our position is that most of the nomination lists prepared by the so-called established political parties must be rejected albeit for a different reason; almost all the candidates whose names appear thereon are total misfits and/or have sullied track records. But, putting up with such unsavoury elements besides voting them in alternately, unfortunately, is what representative democracy is all about in this country.

It defies comprehension why the election laws that cause nomination lists to be rejected, in some cases, on flimsy technical grounds without providing for the rectification of minor errors, have not been amended all these years. The rejection of nomination lists, which may be considered the electoral version of an abortion, can lead to unfortunate situations with people being denied their democratic right to vote for a party of their choice. What the people of Colombo experienced due to the rejection of the UNP’s nomination list for the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) in 2006 due to a last minute alteration is a case in point.

The Joint Opposition (JO) big guns, who were in power then, rejoiced at the UNP’s predicament. Out of sheer desperation to prevent its bastion from falling to the SLFP-led UPFA, the UNP backed a group of independent candidates who had a pair of spectacles as their symbol but obviously lacked vision. Those political greenhorns who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to poll more than a few dozen votes, got elected. The problem with political jokes is said to be that they get elected. The spectacle group later switched its allegiance to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose government became a powerful vacuum cleaner, sucking in political dregs of all sorts.

Interestingly, after defecting to the SLFP, the Independent group went so far as to change the colour of the fence around the Town Hall from green to blue (the colour of the SLFP)! Due to bad press, the government was compelled to have it painted green again! So much for the calibre of those who got elected to rule the most important local government institution in the country due to the rejection of a nomination list and subsequent political monouevring, machinations and horse trading!

The JO worthies who are making a song and a dance about the rejection of their nomination lists did nothing to amend the ‘bad’ election laws they are currently griping about. Legislation should have been introduced, while they were in power, to make the laws governing nomination process less draconian.

Meanwhile, there is another despicable practice which has had a far more deleterious effect on democracy than the rejection of nominations owing to minor errors. Some unpopular candidates who were rejected by people at the last general elections were appointed to Parliament and even made Cabinet ministers. The incumbent government is full of them. It was reported some time ago that a stock of discarded, putrescent sausages had found its way back into the market. We see hardly any difference between a table laid with rotten bangers among other things and a parliament polluted by the presence of political rejects, retrieved from the political waste dump and made MPs. Strangely, we have heard nothing—not a sausage—from any of the self-appointed champions of good governance in protest against this shameful practice.

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Priorities of the Elections Commission: Stymying people’s sovereignty through bureaucratic nitpicking

December 21st, 2017

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

December 21, 2017, 10:05 pm
It was with interest that I read Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole’s recent article in The Island, “Duties of Election Commission: A proactive or bureaucratic stand?” Prof. Hoole is one of the three members of the Elections Commission. Indeed this would be a question on many people’s minds at this moment given the rejection of many nomination lists filed by political parties for the forthcoming local government election. With regard to the rejection of the Maharagama nomination list of the Podujana Peramuna ostensibly on the grounds that it does not have the required number of women candidates, what we hear is that the list has the requisite number of women but that the gender of one female candidate had been inadvertently entered as male on the list.

Even though this had been pointed out to the returning officer, he had rejected the list nevertheless. It was said that the Weligama list of the Podujana Peramuna had not been handed in by the authorized person. According to a party leader of the JO, what had happened in that instance was that the authorized person – a politician – had come to hand in the nomination papers with a lawyer and he had handed in the first file and then been distracted by an official sitting nearby and the lawyer who had accompanied him had handed in the other file and that is what is being interpreted as ‘not having been handed in by an authorised person’. While it is certainly true that nomination papers should be handed in correctly, one has to ask oneself whether it is reasonable to reject a nomination paper on grounds such as those mentioned above.

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This is the people’s sovereignty that we are talking about. Even though the Elections Commission exists to facilitate elections and the expression of this sovereignty, instances such as these give one the impression that they are waiting to find some excuse however flimsy to reject nomination papers and thereby stymie that very sovereignty they are supposed to uphold. It would stand to reason that a nomination paper should be rejected only in instances where there is a major error which cannot be corrected before the close of the nominations. Prof. Hoole has said in the article mentioned above that a new Election Commission was appointed in Nov. 2015, and that “It is the Commission’s immense responsibility to establish strong norms of governance as precedents for future Commissions”. In that respect, the latest spate of rejections leaves much to be desired.

Referring apparently to the rejection of the Maharagama nominations list the Elections Commissioner was shown on TV explaining that while the names of the candidates were written in one column the gender was written in another column and the Elections Commission in checking whether the required number of women candidates have been included in the nomination list looks only at the column on which the gender is stated and not at the column on which the names of the candidates are written and besides, that there are many names used by both men and women such as Kumudu and that it is not possible to judge by name whether a person is male or female.

That, however, is not the point. The point is that if a nomination paper has the required number of women candidates even though the gender of one of the candidates has been inadvertently misstated in the nomination paper should that list be rejected? The requirement in the law is that it should have a certain number of women in it and that requirement has been met. In such circumstances to reject a nomination paper on the grounds that the gender of one candidate has been inadvertently misstated in the gender column can only be interpreted as bureaucratic nit picking. After all, every candidate on the nominations list is a male or female by self proclamation. Nobody has actually examined them to ascertain that they are actually what they claim to be. Therefore if the person handing in a nomination paper states that a particular candidate is female even though the gender column has misstated her gender as male that should be sufficient for the returning officer to accept the nomination paper. It should not be necessary to go to courts to get a minor error like that rectified. It is important to allow commonsense also to play a role in safeguarding the peoples’ sovereignty.

It is, no doubt, necessary to ensure that the contesting parties do not hand in faulty nomination papers. To ensure accuracy, a system of substantial fines for minor errors would be more appropriate without outright rejection. The only matters going before courts should be matters that are serious enough to be dealt with by courts. This practice of rejecting nominations lists has given rise to a culture of opponents trying to use this means to knock out the other side even before the contest begins by raising piddling issues in the paperwork submitted. The Elections Commission will have to decide whether they are running elections or a fill-in-the-blanks contest. Prof. Hoole a member of the Elections Commission himself has likened the attitude of Elections Commission officials to the little boy who was told by his mother to wear a particular shirt to school and the latter had gone to school wearing only that shirt because he had not been specifically told to wear trousers.

Elections officers would need to be reminded that their duty is to hold elections, and that the nomination paper is what enables people to contest those elections and that they should never be rejected without a good cause. Given the fact that this time the system of election has been changed completely, there should have been greater leeway given to correct minor errors in the paperwork without rejecting them outright.

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Govt. in overdrive with US assistance Search for ‘stolen funds’

December 21st, 2017

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

A US official is in Colombo to coordinate high profile ongoing asset recovery operations undertaken by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration.

Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) President’s Counsel Sarath Jayamanne yesterday said the US official coordinated training programmes involving his outfit and related work. PC Jayamanne said so when The Island inquired from him about the recent US State Department announcement that Sri Lanka would receive US assistance in this regard.

PC Jayamanne succeeded Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe in late Oct. 2016 following her sudden resignation after an incident where President Maithripala Sirisena took the CIABOC to task.

The State Department Spokesperson on Dec.5 declared that since 2016, the US government had assisted in Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption efforts to improve the functioning of the legal system and civil society and to enhance good governance. The spokesperson said programmes included the provision of a Resident Legal Advisor to provide anti-corruption and asset recovery training, and support to the CIABOC.

PC Jayamanne said that on the basis of the State Department statement Sri Lanka had been erroneously categorised as one of the four most corrupt countries by a section of the media. The DG, CIABOC said that the US had offered assistance consequent to Sri Lanka’s request last year. Ukraine, Tunisia and Nigeria had been named as other recipients of US assistance, he said.

The US official works with the Attorney General’s Department as well as Presidential Task Force engaged in anti-corruption work.

The Island sought an explanation from the Public Affairs Section of the US embassy in Colombo on Dec. 11 regarding State Department categorising Sri Lanka among a group of countries selected to receive US assistance to combat corruption. In spite of repeated reminders, the following questions went unanswered:

(a) Has the State Department examined treasury bond scams perpetrated in Feb 2015 and March 2016 before offering special assistance to Sri Lanka, including provision of Resident Legal Advisor, Colombo?

(b) As the State Department has revealed allocation of USD 115 mn annually for global anti-corruption activities, could the embassy reveal the allocation for Sri Lanka?

(c) What is the status of Rs 1.92 bn (USD 13 mn) USAID project meant to strengthen accountability and democratic governance in Sri Lanka against the backdrop of the country being named as one of the four countries which required US assistance to tackle corruption?

Although the proposal didn’t materialize, the UK, too, in mid-2016 offered to station some personnel in Colombo in support of CIABOC.

PC Jayamanne explained how Nigeria had benefited from US-led assistance to recover stolen funds. Nigeria and Sri Lanka had been at the recently concluded inaugural Global Forum on Asset recovery (GFAR) co-hosted by the US and the UK in Washington. Jayamanne said that initially Nigeria would receive USD 300 mn from Switzerland. PC Jayamanne was on Sri Lanka’s delegation along with other senior Attorney General’s Department officers.

Following GFAR, international news agencies quoted Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami as having said at the Chatham House, London, that he had signed two agreements, on behalf of Nigeria, with Switzerland and the United States of America, respectively, for the return of USD 621 million in looted funds.

According to agencies, former head of state, late General Sani Abacha and the former Bayelsa State Governor, late Diepreye Alamieyeisegha were responsible for illegal transfers.

Jayamanne stressed that Sri Lanka’s desire to secure international assistance in asset recovery operations shouldn’t be construed as a failure of the domestic mechanisms. “Some investigations do require international assistance and expertise,” he said.

The media has revealed that the stolen funds currently in the custody of the US were stashed away in the United Kingdom (USD 1.6m and 21.7m Pounds), France (USD 145m) and Jersey (USD 299m) respectively.

Jayamanne said the World Bank, too, had been involved in the initiative. Referring to an international conference in Austria he had participated several months ago, Jayamanne explained the stand taken by some that recovered money should be utilized subjected to strict international scrutiny.

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SLFP has collapsed into a state that they name Azath Salley as Colombo Mayoral candidate – JVP ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය බංකොලොත් වෙලා

Chandre Dharmawardana.

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

Presidential Commission to probe Shangri La land deal?

Implementation of JRJ’s plan

Security concerns

Courtesy The Island

ඩබ්ලිව්. කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු උපුටාගැණීම මව්බිම

ඩබ්ලිව්. කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු උපුටාගැණීම මව්බිම

Yoshitha Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Shenali D Waduge

A Patriot

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

දේශාල් පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි.

Senaka Weeraratna

lanka C news

Mahinda.info

මහින්ද පතිරණ

by Goolbai Gunasekara Courtesy The Island

By Charles.S.Perera

ALI SUKHANVER

By F. William Engdahl Courtesy Global Research,

Chris Baynes Courtesy The Independent•December 21, 2017

by P.G.Punchihewa Ph.D.

Ancient irrigation system

The Sangha and the influence of Buddhism

Inland fisheries

Embassy of Sri Lanka Washington D.C

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

When European small Vineyards make wines people crush grapes by standing an dtrampling grapes in a the big VAT .I am sure many insects are fermented in the Saint-Emilion vinery

If we are not perfect why do we try to show the world that we follow protocols such as C162 – Asbestos Convention, 1986 (No. 162) ??

Is this prohibition of Asbestos by our government instigated by companies who sell Color Coded Zink Aluminimum sheets? Or is it a capitalist maneuvering by Big time manufactures like Mascons and Rhyno ???

One day one might say that the oxide formed in Zink Alu ( Amano) are also poisonous and clothes made form fiber course cancer?

Very soon we will go back to stone ages .We may live naked in rock caves to avoid smog and dust from clothes , eating Beetles as they are full of vitamins ??

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

CRACKDOWN

Editorial Courtesy The Island

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

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